I have never installed hardware into a computer and am trying to install a dvd burner. I have the users guide and installation instructions sitting beside me to go by but its still not workiing. I have an emachine that came with a cdrw burner. I decided I wanted to upgrade and get a dvd burner so I could back up all my dvds so that my kids would have a copy and wouldn't mess up my original. The cd burner in my computer shows the jumper to be set to cable. The dvd burner I bought had its jumper set to master. The instructions with the dvd burner said if I was installing this to replace a drive to set it the same as the one I was removing, which I did. When I booted up the computer it found the new hardware and proceeded to install it. The thing is when the computer boots up all the information that scrolls while its booting up still shows the cd burner (which I completely removed from the system) as my primary master drive and it lists the dvd burner as the secondary master drive. Why would it still be showing the cd burner if I took it completely out? When you click on my computer it shows Drive D to be a CDRW Drive and it shows Drive E as a DVD RW Drive. When I insert a movie into the drive it brings it up, shows the files, and I am even able to copy the movie to my hard drive. Then when I insert a blank dvd into the drive it shows the dvd drive to be just a regular cd rom drive. Therefore I can't copy the moveis that I have copied to my hard drive. I can't even copy music from my computer onto a blank cd. If any of this makes sense to anyone I would really appreciate some help. Unfortunately I live in a small town and the nearest computer repair shop is about 60 miles away which is why I am trying to do this myself. The dvd burner is NEC model nd-3500a that I bought from newegg.com and I am using Memorex DVD's 8x. Thanks for any help
you need to remove the cd drive from the pc configuration to do this click - control panel system hardware device manager this will bring up a list of all the hardware installed on your pc click - dvd/cd room drives this will expand the "tree' & show you the drives. right click & select uninstall on the old cd drive which you removed. restart the system & see if this sorts out your problems. if it still wont recognize your dvds try a different brand, as i once had a sony dvd burner that would not recognize memorex discs for some reason. hope this helps
Thank you both for your help. I was able to remove the old cd using the instructions you gave. My new dvd burner apparently doesn't recognize memorex dvd's. I see where they are a dark purple underneath. A friend of mine had a dvd without any color underneath it and it worked great. I was able to make a copy of the Wedding Crashers. I need to go and get some different dvd's. What brands would you recommend? Again thanks!!!!
you are welcome. glad you got it to work. recommended dvds - taiyo yuden, verbatim, sony (made in japan) discs are all recommended (taiyo yuden is no1!) always use good branded media as you will get less burn errors & the discs will last longer (some cheap discs will not work after 6-12 months) . you can get verbatims & sony from sams club or best buy. taiyo you can get here - http://www.supermediastore.com/ beware if buying taiyo yuden from somewhere that you dont know or have no knowledge of as there are fake ones around. here is a thread with other recommended media - http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/240341 i'm sure if you have any other questions about backing up dvds you will find them here at afterdawn - i have always found answers to my questions here happy burning
