[srmkferguson]

I have a Sony Vaio Laptop. It says I have a DVDR Double Layer/DVD-RW Drive, whatever that means! I have a CD-R that has pictures on it but when I put it in my laptop it says the CD is blank! I know the cd works because when I put it in my desktop computer it brings up the pictures. Can I get my laptop to bring up the pictures and if I can how do I do it?? I'm stuck!!!!

[snorg]

The CD drive is not able to read the CD, thats why it says its blank.
Something is wrong with the CD drive.

When did you buy the laptop?

[piyushsingh]

hello !
A few questions which will make the issue clearer.
what are the OSes on both systems?
Which software you used to burn the CD-R disc (3rd party or windows burning) ?
Which format did you used for burning , i mean was it a multi-session disc or did you finalized it ?

[srmkferguson]

Bought the laptop 2 years ago

[srmkferguson]

A few questions which will make the issue clearer.
what are the OSes on both systems?

I have NO idea what that means?? Sorry

Which software you used to burn the CD-R disc (3rd party or windows burning) ?

I'm not sure what software was used to burn it, We took picture at this phota studio and they put all of the picture on a disk so that we could print them out instead of buying sheets of the pictures. They used photoshop to view the pictures, I don't know if that helps?

Which format did you used for burning , i mean was it a multi-session disc or did you finalized it ?

Again I have no clue, we bought the cd. When I tried to load it last night and it said blank I called back and yelled and got another cd and that one says blank but it really isn't!

[piyushsingh]

By OS i mean , do you have window XP, vista or something other on the systems.

[snorg]

Take the laptop & the CD to the photo studio, show them that it does not work, ask them to help you.

[srmkferguson]

Already did that but the lady at the photo shop was pretty ditzy and worse with computers than I am!

[srmkferguson]

Oh, sowwy, he he it's XP

[piyushsingh]

A few things you can try.
* First check out if you laptop drive is fine, try using some other CD/DVD in this drive to ensure it is working.
* Download a utility isobuster from this link and install it try using this to read the disc.(trial version will do the job)
* If one system is reading it fine, you can copy the disc and try burning another disc yourself and use it in the laptop.
Since you dont know what way the disc was burned , the studio people may have burned it in a different manner.Some burners give a warning when creating multi-session discs that they might not read on some other drives. Similar is the case with windows burning when you create a disc in vista using the live file system.

If all fails, what snorg suggested would be the option.

[smax013]

Are you sure it was a CD-R and not a CD-RW? You might want to check with the photo company on that.



If it was a CD-RW and they used either Nero or Roxio, then it needs that program to read it. It just might be that you have that program on the desktop but not the laptop. A CD-R, whether single session or multisession, should have no trouble on any computer with any drive.



The only other thing that I could think of that this point is that there is a problem with the drive. Have you tried some other disks like someone else suggested?

[snorg]

Another thing you can do is save the pictures to your desktop, then burn a new CD from that and see if your laptop can read the new CD.

[arcticsid]

The drive on my computer will play and record cd-r and cd-rw disks but not cd, or cdrw, I'm not real certain but maybe some drives will only play one type or the other anyone have any comment on this. I was pretty frusterated when I bout a spool of cd+rw's and couldn't use them. Since I started using the"-"'s I haven't had any problem. I'm wondering if your machine just wont recognize the othe format.

Arctic Sid

[coastie65]

The laptop is DVD R and the pictures are on a CD -R. I bet the desktop is either a CD-R/ RW or CD /- R/RW and that is why he was able to access the files on the desktop. Had the files been put on a CD R, they could have accessed on the Vaio. It's called incompatible media. If the pictures can be put on a CD R or DVD +R, than they can be accessed on the vaio, or at least should. coastie65

[smax013]

arcticsid said:

The drive on my computer will play and record cd-r and cd-rw disks but not cd, or cdrw, I'm not real certain but maybe some drives will only play one type or the other anyone have any comment on this. I was pretty frusterated when I bout a spool of cd+rw's and couldn't use them. Since I started using the"-"'s I haven't had any problem. I'm wondering if your machine just wont recognize the othe format.

Arctic Sid

I believe you mean DVDs. There is only one type of CDs...the "-" type (not that it matters with CDs). It is DVDs that come with a "+" type and a "-" type. And not all DVD drive will play or burn both.

[smax013]

coastie65 said:

The laptop is DVD R and the pictures are on a CD -R. I bet the desktop is either a CD-R/ RW or CD /- R/RW and that is why he was able to access the files on the desktop. Had the files been put on a CD R, they could have accessed on the Vaio. It's called incompatible media. If the pictures can be put on a CD R or DVD +R, than they can be accessed on the vaio, or at least should. coastie65

If the original poster is correct about their drive, then they should not have a problem with CD-R, DVD-R, or DVD+R disks. The drive is supposedly a DVD
+/-R burner according to the first post. Regardsless, ANY DVD drive should have ZERO problems with a CD-R disk. The issue of incompatbile media would be mainly if it was a DVD.



Now, if the poster is incorrect for some reason and it is just a CD burner, then it still should not be a problem. There is only one type of CD format. All CD should work fine with basically any optical drive.



The exception is RW media (whether CD-RW, DVD-RW, or DVD+RW). With RW media, it can highly be a function of how the media was burner to...whether using default Windoze burning capability or a third party software like Nero or Roxio. RW media is generally NOT suggested to be used to go from computer to computer, but rather to be used with ONE computer. It is the R media that is generally considered best to be used for sharing content from computer to computer.

[arcticsid]

I stand re-educated, guess I may not have understood myself. Thanks for the info, I help it can assist the original poster in his question



ArcticSid

[coastie65]

Hi smax, That's all I got is CD RW. I burn music to them and they seem to work in the other stuff that I play my music on ( CDplayers and at times a DVD player). My optical drive is CD R/RW and DVD R/RW DL. I have a VHS/ DVD /- RW combo and a VHS DVD +R/RW combo that I can play my music on that I have burned on this thing. If they were pictures, the file size alone would tell me that they were probably burned to DVD and not CD, particularly if there were at fairly large number of pictures. He didn't say which media reader he was using on the desktop that he was able to read the Disk with. I don't know the information given is pretty sketchy and really not enough to work with. coastie65