SportNet1
Apr 22, 2006, 03:44 AM
Greetings all. Apologies in advance if this specific situation has been addressed in here before, but I really have read though the previous several months' worth of posts and haven't seen it discussed, at least not in regards to the hardware and software I'm using. Apologies as well for being stymied by what seems to be a really vanilla, CD-RW 101 sort of operation, but I'll admit up front I'm a pathetic old geezer with no computer expertise whatsoever.
I'm running Windows XP with an Athlon XP 2200 CPU and 80GB hard-drive, an Optorite 48x16x48 CD Burner, NTI CD Maker 2000+, and both Imation 1x-4x and Memorex 4x blank CD-RWs. I assume nothing, but I'm pretty sure there's no hardware problem, since the Optorite plays all media types on other CDs just fine. The problem is getting it and the NTI software to create CDs and play them back and Windows to show what if anything is on the CDs I've tried to create.
Mainly I'm trying to use the CDs to store a few hundred MBs of text (.rtf, .doc, and .txt) files and graphics (.jpg, .gif, and .bmp) files currently filling up my hard drive. I've spent the entirety of two days on this and by now I'm feeling quite more stupid than usual. The results have been all over the map, but none of them have yielded a readable CD. The NTI program has variously: refused to recognise that a blank CD is even in the burner; or, upon recognising one was present, refused to recognise it as a writable CD; or, upon recognising it as writable, refused to recognise that there was enough space on the CD to accommodate the files I'm trying to copy; or, upon recognising the amount of space, failed to write some or all of the files anyway; or, upon claiming to have written all the files, failed to have written them in any way that would allow me to subsequently view them. On one occasion, it required a blank floppy be inserted in the floppy drive in order to organise the data. There were a few other one-off variations, but the above were the most frequent results. For its part, after the CD was supposedly burned, Windows Explorer will sometimes and sometimes not show the named folder containing the files, and when it recognises the folder will either show the amount of data supposedly written to the CD (the total amount, but not even the basic details of those files) or show that there is no data at all in it, and in either case the CD just seems to rev madly while Windows tries to read it.
Does this pattern of behavior suggest anything to the experts in here (anything besides my own lack of intelligence, that is)? Is the problem anything to do with insufficient RAM (I'm trying to copy one folder containing files and subfolders totalling about 350MB, another folder with files and subfolders totalling about 180MB)? Is it something to do with trying to copy folders full of individual files rather than just the individual files by themselves? Is it something to do (I have no idea how to adjust this) with copying speed? Is it something to do with how the CDs are "named" or "titled"? I read in another post in this forum that data files cannot be read back on a CD burner, but I'm reading .txt and .bmp files from professionally-produced multi-media music CDs with no problem. I also tried reading the CDs that NTI claimed were burned successfully on the CD-ROM unit of another computer, which also uses an XP OS, and Windows Explorer there, as on my own computer, alternately displayed the CDs I'd burned as having no data at all, or having the expected amount of data but being unable to display it.
Well, there you have it. I've tried every way from Sunday to use the NTI program, and even tried the Windows XP CD-Writing Wizard program, without any success. I've tried multiple blank CDs of two different brands. I've also looked through the Optorite and NTI websites, which offered no help at all. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the Optorite driver software with no improvement in results. I'm sure I must be overlooking something ridiculously simple. I could really use a step-by-step walk-through, but any help at all would be immensely appreciated.
I'm running Windows XP with an Athlon XP 2200 CPU and 80GB hard-drive, an Optorite 48x16x48 CD Burner, NTI CD Maker 2000+, and both Imation 1x-4x and Memorex 4x blank CD-RWs. I assume nothing, but I'm pretty sure there's no hardware problem, since the Optorite plays all media types on other CDs just fine. The problem is getting it and the NTI software to create CDs and play them back and Windows to show what if anything is on the CDs I've tried to create.
Mainly I'm trying to use the CDs to store a few hundred MBs of text (.rtf, .doc, and .txt) files and graphics (.jpg, .gif, and .bmp) files currently filling up my hard drive. I've spent the entirety of two days on this and by now I'm feeling quite more stupid than usual. The results have been all over the map, but none of them have yielded a readable CD. The NTI program has variously: refused to recognise that a blank CD is even in the burner; or, upon recognising one was present, refused to recognise it as a writable CD; or, upon recognising it as writable, refused to recognise that there was enough space on the CD to accommodate the files I'm trying to copy; or, upon recognising the amount of space, failed to write some or all of the files anyway; or, upon claiming to have written all the files, failed to have written them in any way that would allow me to subsequently view them. On one occasion, it required a blank floppy be inserted in the floppy drive in order to organise the data. There were a few other one-off variations, but the above were the most frequent results. For its part, after the CD was supposedly burned, Windows Explorer will sometimes and sometimes not show the named folder containing the files, and when it recognises the folder will either show the amount of data supposedly written to the CD (the total amount, but not even the basic details of those files) or show that there is no data at all in it, and in either case the CD just seems to rev madly while Windows tries to read it.
Does this pattern of behavior suggest anything to the experts in here (anything besides my own lack of intelligence, that is)? Is the problem anything to do with insufficient RAM (I'm trying to copy one folder containing files and subfolders totalling about 350MB, another folder with files and subfolders totalling about 180MB)? Is it something to do with trying to copy folders full of individual files rather than just the individual files by themselves? Is it something to do (I have no idea how to adjust this) with copying speed? Is it something to do with how the CDs are "named" or "titled"? I read in another post in this forum that data files cannot be read back on a CD burner, but I'm reading .txt and .bmp files from professionally-produced multi-media music CDs with no problem. I also tried reading the CDs that NTI claimed were burned successfully on the CD-ROM unit of another computer, which also uses an XP OS, and Windows Explorer there, as on my own computer, alternately displayed the CDs I'd burned as having no data at all, or having the expected amount of data but being unable to display it.
Well, there you have it. I've tried every way from Sunday to use the NTI program, and even tried the Windows XP CD-Writing Wizard program, without any success. I've tried multiple blank CDs of two different brands. I've also looked through the Optorite and NTI websites, which offered no help at all. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the Optorite driver software with no improvement in results. I'm sure I must be overlooking something ridiculously simple. I could really use a step-by-step walk-through, but any help at all would be immensely appreciated.