Can't burn data CDs

Good afternoon all.
Well I installed the new burner and my son can burn copies if his music cds, but I can't make backups. I need to do this so that if/when I need to reinstall windows or something, I have the discs. Have been getting one of 2 things happening, as the burning process starts, pc locks up or after it is done says not successful.
Am using Nero Express, it came with the burner. Since I installed it, I am also noticing a big slow down on the loading of regular programs or eg, here, the graphics are taking forever (can see the tags etc). This wasn't a problem before. Have run all the usual, av, ad-aware, spybot, hijack this, defragged and system scan. Betcha I'm going to have to reinstall something,right?
I hope this is the right place, I didn't know if this would be software or hardware. I was wondering too if there is a better program for the burning and for doing backups. Er hem, never done a full backup on this pc..
Win 2000 professional sp4, Pentium III, 256 memory. Let me know if you need more info. Thanks as always.

 

With apologies

Forgot that I was supposed to do a search for similar problems before posting but I guess I was just so ticked off that the very first data discs I tried to burn wouldn't work that I posted in haste.
So I have downloaded the demo of Nero 6 to try (also downloaded burn4free -any opinion on that?
My main concern is to get backups of my hd progs and I am hoping that nero will allow me to do that now. I thought it was the hardware as it is new but am probably wrong.
BTW the system slowdown seems to have been fixed, (as of this morning) perhaps it was an internet thing.
I apologize. Thanks.

 

A few thoughts: Jumper settings on the drive(s)? Burner on the same IDE channel as the HD? IDE device settings in BIOS set to?

 

Oh thanks Doug
I did a post for help before I installed the burner and that was all explained to me (I did actually mix them up at first but looked again and corrected it. We can burn audio cds I just can't burn any data info off the pc. First time said it couldn't do it, then it started to burn and froze.

 

If still got burning problems, might remove and reinstall burning software see if that helps.
Only install one cd burning software.
I use nero 5.5 works great for cd and dvd. Also use several others.
Here at Major Geeks is a very good program (FREE) for CD and DVD
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4055.html
I use it too.

 

i remember that this cd burner came with NERO. you might already know this, but if everything is slowing down, you might want to quit some trivial programs. I always quit any messanger services that are running, or pda assistants. I even take off the screensaver. if it takes up resources, then i suspend it for the time being. ever since then, i have had no problem with Nero, or Nero Express.

 

Thanks ASUS and Techie, I do try and turn off a lot of extra stuff. Yes it did come with nero 5.5 express and I got the 6.0 demo of full nero from mg's yesterday, but haven't installed it yet. I see a new program in startup, InCdsrv.exe it is something from Nero I think. Would that have to be there just to run the burner?

 

It's a packet writing tool. It allows a CD or DVD RW to be used like a hard drive to store any program's files. I have Nero 6 and it doesn't seem to miss it.

 

No, InCD is a different program than Nero. It doesn't need to be installed/running for Nero to work, and vice-versa.

 

Thank you Just playin and Wyatt,
So it will be okay for me to disable them in startup? I have so many problem with freezes on this pc that I don't want anything extra running unless I don't use it. I installed the demo nero 6 good until June 30, ,but I like it a lot. Also tried easy audio burner as recommended here, that works great, but you only get to use it 5 times. I think it would be worth purchasing. The one I really wanted to use , Nero Back Up says the demo has already expired and I never even used it! Oh well. At least I have now made a hd backup. I still have to try it with the data copies.

 

Idiot.....