In message , Andy
writes:
[]
It isn't the _drive_ that's not being detected - that always shows up
in explorer; it's only the fact that there's a blank disc in it that
is so often missed.

Any ideas what's causing it, and what will improve it?

Try a different brand of CD blanks...Taiyo Yuden are among the best.

And once you've wasted a couple of quality blank CDs, throw the drive
away and spend $20-$30 to replace it.

It's ****ed. They don't last forever.

I think if it was the blanks, it wouldn't have been burning faultlessly
for the last few times we did manage to make it realise there was a disc
present. (And with cheap blanks, too.)

It's not that old - only a year or two; the elderly PC had a non-writing
drive (still there). It's actually a CD and DVD writer, as I couldn't
even find a CD-only one. It's not been used much.

I will try the cleaning disc suggestion, but I do think it's a system
configuration funny: as I mentioned earlier, when burn4free is told to
do a burn, it accesses the floppy drive before getting to the writer.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for ludicrously
outdated thoughts on PCs. **

If at first you DO succeed, try not to look astonished!