PC help: What's wrong with the writer?

Signs your CD writer is getting on a bit

Written by Tim Smith and Anthony Dhanendran, Computeract!ve

Q have Roxio’s Easy CD Creator 5 Basic which up to now has worked fine.

When I have tried to put video files from a folder on the hard disk onto a CD it says it is copying files and then, minutes later, ejects a blank disc, saying it has detected errors during recording or on the CD.

I am using brand new discs and I have uninstalled and reinstalled CD Creator but to no avail.
William McKenzie

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A It sounds like your CD writer could be on its last legs. Easy CD Creator 5 was released in 2001, so if you’ve been using the drive for that long as well, it’s possible that it’s come to the end of its life.

Fortunately, new internal CD burners are not particularly expensive – drives that include the ability to read and write all DVD formats as well as CDs now cost less than £20. One excellent example is the Pioneer DVR-111, which is £22 from www.scan.co.uk.

External models that connect via USB are also widely available. There’s no easy way to test your drive, but before doing anything try burning a disc with no other programs running, which should help the drive to burn properly. Also, try using another piece of software to burn a disc.

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