Disc Writing Errors

Hi all,

I've been unable to write files from my CF or files stored on my

hardrive to CD. When I copy, everything seems to be working okay

until the end when I get a disc writing error. The space on the

disc goes to zero even though nothing was written. It's not the

discs as I've tried different kinds. Could this be because my

storage is low on my hard drive? If I defrag, will this hurt the

files I've downloaded on my computer? Anybody had problems like

this before? I'm not a computer person so any advice would be

helpful.

Defrag does not hurt data on the disk.

Did you run a lot of other applications when you burned the CD? Burning CD requires accurate timing, it's better to close other applications and wait till it finishes.

Connection from CF reader to the PC is kind of slow. It's better to copy the files to your hard drive first, then burn the CD.

Good Luck!

It might just be that your Windows is suiciding, or that your HDD is diying ; in that case :

Run to the store and buy a new harddrive ; put it in your machine in place of the other, reinstall your OS, put the old harddrive back on the other IDE cable, copy your data to the new drive, trash the old one.

Have a geek friend help you...

Hi Qiang,

I just looked and my hard drive © is 84% full! Can I store stuff on the D drive?

I'll defrag. I run the Norton program and my computer's system cleanup weekly, but wasn't sure about defrag. Usually I copy from the CF reader to disc, but if I've been shooting a lot I download to my hard drive first since I like to rename the files before copying to disc.

Other applications? Just the internet. I've copied while on the internet before with no problems. Ill make sure everything is closed next time. Just want to make sure I don't waste anymore discs, so I'm trying to touch all the bases!

Thanks again.

Hi Pierre,

Windows is committing suicide? My hard drive is dying? This computer isn't that old. I've had it 21 months. It's a Sony Vaio, only the second computer I've ever owned. My first lasted 6.5 years so if this thing is about to crash I will be very upset! I can't afford to replace these things every two years. Drove my last car 9 years, my television is 15 years old, my stereo is 10 years old, my first camera I used for 20 years. My computer cannot die!

"Run to the store and buy a new harddrive ; put it in your machine in place of the other, reinstall your OS, put the old harddrive back on the other IDE cable, copy your data to the new drive, trash the old one."

Not sure what all this means. And I wish I had a geek friend!

Thanks....

Jenna, 84% full hard drive is 1% too many. I believe Windows will refuse to defrag if hard drive has less than 17% free space. That's the number that sticks in my head. Clear out some old files first. Defrag is a periodic MUST. It does not effect the files.

Get into Windows Explorer (Windows key + letter E, if you're lost already), then right click the drive sympbol and choose properties. Then:

1. Click disk cleanup and follow the prompts.

2. Go to the tools tab, and click error checking, and following the prompts.

3. On the same (tools) tab, click defragment, and choose defrag now. Hopefully, step 1 will have freed up sufficient deadwood to get you under the 17% ceiling. If not, or if you're uncomfortable with all this:

get a nerd friend on it, and TAKE NOTES. And do look into extra drive/replacement drive/bigger drive. Anything you can learn regarding under-the-hood stuff will benefit you in many ways, espcially longterm presevation of your precious images.

Hi Mendel,

I cleared out some stuff to 19% and ran the deframenter. It's still showing 19%. I was able to successfully copy one set of files to disc and then when I tried to copy them to a second disc (I always do two sets) I encountered the same problem. I didn't have any other applications running when I did this. Could my disc writer be dirty?

Thanks for your help.

Defrag will not increase your free space. Well it might, very slightly, due to the files being contiguous and thus taking slightly less space. Maybe have a second look, for temp files, downloads you don't need, etc.

Your hd space and burn issues may or may not be related. I think burners require hard drive space during the burn. Then again, could be the burner, could be the medial. I'm out of my depth here.

You might also try registering and posting here:

http://www.suggestafix.com/

I think in the "Hardware & Multimedia" section.

Thanks for the link Mendel. I bought this at Best Buy and I *think* I purchased the service plan with it. I'll have to dig out my receipt to make sure, but I probably should have someone look at it. Although I usually copy my original files quickly, I have folders containing processed files for print (large files) and images for the web and none of these have been copied. Sure it's taking up quite a bit of space. I've got it to 20% now, but still having problems. I also copy at slow speed.

Oh well I guess I won't be shooting much until I get this straightened out. I'll cringe if I have to spend a bunch of money on a new hard drive. I was told this was a pretty good system when I bought it.

Thanks again.

Can you make a screenshot of the exact error please ?

(Alt+PrintScreen, then paste it in an imaging program).

Or, you can copy the exact text of the message here.

It's important in order to know exactly what's happening.

A couple of other suggestions (out of an almost infinite list of possibilities)...

Did you buy very cheap, generic cd-roms? Could be a quality problem.

Are you running any other programs at the same time you're trying to burn your cd's? I'm wondering if you're not getting a "buffer underrun" where the cd runs out of data to write because the cpu is too busy doing other things to keep up with sending it data fast enough.

19% free space on what sized hard drive?