Just to add:

Here is some additional info as to the XP / Roxio situation:

"CD Recording Software Will Cause Windows to Become Unstable" error message when you start Windows XP

I know you have never mentioned this specific error but it might shed some light somewhere.

Jephree and Digerati,

Once again thanks for the information; in response to your postings:
You say, "I am unsure what you mean by ". I have always used the inbuilt XP system for playing and recording" ... Again the XP burner is an inbuilt version of Roxio but the playback is Windows Media Player. Is this what you refer to?" Yes, by this, I mean that I didn't use the third party software (Instant CD-DVD) to record data, I would just drag and drop the info to be save onto the relevant icon in "My Computer", with playback being via "Real Player".

As for the listed drives, the two Sony items are hardware, but the VOBID InstantDrive CD SCSI Cd Rom I assume is a virtual drive, linked to one, or both, of the Sony drives by software.

Back to the changes. By un-installing the Pinnacle Instant CD-DVD programme, re-booting, then deleting all three "drives" from the device manager, then re-installing the two Sony drives via "add hardware" and re-booting, I was able to get the record tab back. Once I installed the Pinnacle Instant CD-DVD programme (which then put the VOBID InstantDrive CD SCSI Cd Rom back into device manager), the record tab disappeared. Any attempt to remove VOBID from the device manager, at this stage, would cause a system crash.

I'm not sure if the opticals are connected via one cable because I haven't, as yet, removed and replaced the hardware as you suggested, this will happen later in the week. Lets hope the gods are smiling on me! It's quite amazing how long all this takes; who was it who said computers save you time!

I downloaded hotfix 35, as proffered by Digerati, and altered the registry to incease the stack size, but this hasn't prevented the system giving a "no more IRP stack locations" error when it crashes.

With regard to the IDE ATA Controllers, I changed both the Primary and Secondary channels to "PIO only", as suggested, but without any noticeable effect, so have now changed them both back to "DMA". If you feel it is beneficial to change it back to PIO, I will certainly do so.

Although the problem hasn't been solved yet, it is certainly proving to be an instructive process. More later.

Regards to you both.

Ian

Just to add one point at this point:

The recording tab is a function of the XP/Roxio burner.

Once you install a third party burner you override the XP/Roxio burner and the Recording tab disappears from XP. This is by design as now your third party is responsible for burning.