Write Protection, DVD/CDRW troubles

with this problem i'm pretty sure someone may have already asked about this, and i've searched for it. I just can't find the topic that answers my problem.
I have a HP pavillion notebook ze4500 it has windows XP home edition and a DVD/CDRW combo drive, that has always worked fine in the past. the problem is that every time i try to copy files to a disc, or back up files, or get files from the disc it tells me the disc is "write protected". is there a certain brand of rewritable disc i could use, or is there a way to fix this problem before i get a virus it deletes all my unbacked-up files.
help would be apreciated.

 

try different media?
also try nero if you can.

 

What do you use for burning software?

Nero is probably the best, will copy anything.

Deep Burner is good free one:
http://majorgeeks.com/download4055.html

As for Media I never use CD-RW only CD-R
Any name brand media should be fine.
CD-R's are so cheap! and I make multisession disc's so I can add more latter if I wish.

 

thanks for some of your help, would multi session CD-Rs allow you to remove files from the disc that you have put on them?

 

nope .. you'd need CDRWs to do that ... hence why they're called CD RE-Writable and CD Recordable