... to my DVD writer?I have two DVD drives on my PC both from LG. A DVD reader "E:" and a DVD Writer "F:". Last night I wanted to backup some files (about 1.5 Gb of files) into a DVD but I wasn

How are the DVD-drives attached to your computer? Are they both on the same IDE-buss, i.e., one Master, second slave?In many cases, two CD/DVD drives on the same buss won't work. If both are on the same buss, try removing the one that works, i.e., unplug the IDE connector, make sure the one left is set to master and try the burn again. If it fixes your problem, you will need to move it to the disk drive buss and leave the other on the secondary buss.Now, it wasn't (maybe still - isn't) recommended having a CD-drive on the disk drive buss either. There are indications it slows down the read/write from the disk drive.Another issue is the CD-drives don't necessarily like the high density IDE disk drive cable. They prefer the old style thicker cables. If you use the old style thicker cables with your disk drive, it WILL show down disk drive read/write.Aren't computers fun!!!W. Sieffert

When I bought my DVD writer, a 4X DVD+R/+RW drive, it came with a disk that included several programs besides the standalone file copying program (sorry, I can't even remember its name, and I only used it once--but it's probably the equivalent of the Nero program you have). One of these programs was "InstantWrite," and I think it basically allows me to copy files to CDs and DVDs via Windows Explorer, as if I was sending files to a floppy disk, and without the need to use a separate standalone file copying program. So in my situation when I insert a blank CD-RW or DVD+R, I simply right-click on the drive letter in Windows Explorer, and select InstantFormat (or something similar) from the menu to format and set up the disk for direct drive access. Occasionally a disk is misinterpreted by the drive when I first insert it; I think there have been times when a DVD disk is recognized as a CD in the file, properties screen when I first check, but after a couple of tries the computer usually comes around and recognizes the correct format. Anyway, I wonder if you have programs like "InstantWrite" that came on the CD with your drive that allow you to work with a disk directly in Windows Explorer like this. Overall I've found the file writing/back-up experience pretty reliable using this method, except that there appears to be a 64-character file name limit when copying files, which can be a problem with many of the files I use. By the way, I have the DVD writer on the same ribbon cable as a CD-ROM drive, and everything appears to be okay. I'm also using Win XP Home.Edit: I should also add that I always finalize the DVD+Rs I create, since I'm using them for archiving. If you're not doing that with your DVDs, perhaps that's causing a problem. As I understand it, finalizing a DVD+R disk makes it readable in other drives, but also means that you can't write any more files to it. In my case when I try to eject the DVD+R disk a little dialog box is generated by the "InstantWrite" program asking if I want to finalize the disk; it won't eject the disk until I've selected yes or no from that dialog.

Thank you both for your help.I didn