Can't figure out why cd/dvd won't work on laptop

FIRST, I'M AN OLD GEEZER LUDDITE (WITH A VISION PROBLEM WHICH IS WHY I AM TYPING IN CAPS) THAT USES A COMPUTER, SO GO SLOWLY WITH THE TECH LANGUAGE PLEASE:-o I PRETTY MUCH LEARNED HOW TO USE A COMPUTER FROM READING THE DUMMIES/IDIOT GUIDES rolleyes BASICALLY CAN OPERATE MY COMPUTER/LAPTOP AND FOLLOW DIRECTIONS TO CORRECT PROBLEMS THAT ARE BASIC. FEEL FREE TO LOL IF THIS 'PROBLEM' SEEMS FUNNY TO YOU:-D

XP OPERATING SYSTEM PACKAGE 3, DELL INSPIRION 1100 LAPTOP. I WAS GIVEN IT AS A GIFT SINCE I DID NOT HAVE A COMPUTER AND THE OWNER UPGRADED. OK,:-D IF YOU MUST, IT'S A 2001:-o

IT HAS A SAMSUNG CDRW/DVD SW-324F DVD ROM/ COMPACT DISC REWRITEABLE ULTRA SPEED UNIT INSTALLED IN THE LEFT SIDE. I HAVE NEVER USED ITrolleyes NOW I WENT TO TRY AND 'WRITE' A CD WITH STUFF FROM MY DOCUMENTS FILE THE OTHER DAY, AND IT SAYS 'CD FULL, INSERT A NEW ONE'. HUH? I PUT IN A BRAND NEW CD WITH NOTHING ON IT AND IT REFUSES TO WRITE TO IT, TRIED MULTIPLE CDS FROM VARIOUS PACKAGES AND BRANDS (OK TO LOL:-D).

I FOLLOWED THIS PATH TO SEE WHAT WAS UP> WENT TO 'MY COMPUTER' UNDER 'HARDWARE TAB'> CLICKED ON> 'LOCAL DISC C:> 'PROPERTIES'> WENT TO 'DVD DRIVE' UNDER 'SHARING'. I FOUND A 'DOTTED LINE' COMPLETELY BOXING IN THE STATEMENT>'IF YOU UNDERSTAND THE RISK BUT STILL WANT TO SHARE THE ROOT OF THE DRIVE, CLICK HERE':confused I CANNOT REMOVE THE 'DOTTED LINE' BOXING THE STATEMENT! WHEN I CLICK ON THE STATEMENT IN BRINGS ME TO A PLACE WHERE THE BOX IS UNABLE TO BE CHECKED TO 'NOT SHARE' THE DRIVE!? MEANING THE DRIVE IS BEING CONTROLLED BY SOMEONE/SOMETHING ELSE? HOW DO I OVERCOME THIS?

WHEN I GO TO THE 'CD DRIVE D' IT SHOWS THE FULL CIRCLE WITH 'BLUE AS USED SPACE' VS 'PINK AS FREE SPACE' WITH THE DRIVE BEING 'FULL ALL BLUE'?! YET 'DRIVE D' SAYS '0 BYTES'? HOW CAN THIS BE? ALSO, SAYS 'WORKING PROPERLY' UNDER INFO FOR CD DVD ROM.

I WOULD LIKE TO USE THE CD DRIVE TO WRITE CD'S FROM MY DOCUMENTS AND FLASHDRIVE/PORTABLE HD. THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME FIGURE THIS OUT.

 

FIRST PART, GOTCHA:-o WENT THROUGH BY CLICKING ON THE DRIVE D CD/DVD THEN PROPERTIES. SHOWS THE SAME AS STATED IN MY ORIGINAL POST.

AS FOR #2, I AM NOT SURE WHAT BURNING PROGRAM IS ON THE COMPUTER:confused AS I DID NOT INSTALL ANYTHING. WHERE WOULD I LOOK TO FIND THAT? THANKS FOR THE HELP.

 

Thank you for the help. I did look under 'programs' but did not find anything with any of the above titles. Now, assuming no burner software is on my laptop, how does one go about figuring out which is needed?

this laptop also has a 'slot' for something to be inserted (wireless?) on the same side but up towards the screen (left corner). Between the 2 are 2 holes one for earphones and the other?

 

Hi, thanks for the two recent posts to my questions. I did find a magnifying glass to check out the little holes on the side-orolleyes:-D i'm still a luddite dragging his knuckles, so i don't think I'll be using those 'features' any time soon:-o Nice to know they exist!

Second, I did some investigating on my computer through the 'properties' of the cd drive 'd' and found the following info if it is of any help to us:

Samsung CDRW/DVD SN-324F
Driver Provider- Microsoft
Driver Date- 7/1/2001
Driver Version- 5.1.2535.0
Digital Signer- Microsoft Windows Publisher

this is again on a Dell Inspirion 1100 circa 2001:-o running Windows XP Home Version SP 3.

I placed a CD in the Drive 'D' again, but the 0 Bytes remains along with the circle remaining fully Blue. It does not change to Pink? SO I did not proceed further then this.

YOU SAID>Two things: this program will only burn to CDs not DVDs. So if you have a lot of files to burn, you might want to find a 3rd party burning program.

I SAY> Hmm? I was hoping to burn to DVD only because my understanding is that they hold more info than a CD. I do have a lot of files to burn to CD from one full Flashdrive>Sandisk Cruzer Micro 4GB, and an older Portable harddrive that I was given. I get computer type things 'handed down to me' by well meaning friends. They don't live locally or I'd get them to figure my computer issues out.

I might have to find a '3RD party burning program' as you suggest above.

YOU SAID>If you only have a few hundred MB, you can burn what you have and later you can go through all the steps above and burn more files to the same CD. You can continue to add to the CD until you have reached the 700MB capacity. What you are doing is burning a "session". A CD can have many sessions on it until it is full.

I SAY> This is good info as I would like to keep the volume of CD copies to a minimum. Making up a Library of bits and pieces of information gleaned while reading about various topics online....over the past 10 years:-o Been 'saving' everything to flashdrive and portable hard drive, from my 'documents' file...and now they are approaching the 'full mark(s)':-orolleyes

YOU SAID>When I return from a trip, I always remove the card from my camera and burn the pictures to a data CD. Some of my data CDs have sessions for quite a few trips we took.

I SAID> Thanks again for the above info. I have quite a few camera cards from my digital camera before it stopped working. Figured the photos were/are safe on those cards for storage purposes, right? I had bought a Canon camera relying on the quality name brand in 35mm cameras I had used for years...only to have the camera stop functioning properly after 3 years Of course I had bought 5 extra expensive proprietery batteries from Canon by then, so they made their money off me

Please let me know if there is more information I can find on the computer for you to be able to help me. All my Software is up to date as far as Malwarbytes, Avira, CCleaner, Adobe Reader 9, Mozilla Firefox.....which are essentially the only things I run on my computer. I do keep constantly being nagged by MS that 'updates are ready for your computer' in the tray. But I get them almost weekly now and think that they don't need to be run that often, so I don't trust uploading them. I run Mozilla Firefox as my browser not Windows. Thanks again.

 

Hi again, seems I was trying to use a DVD to 'copy to' vs a CD:-o I had not looked closely at it because it was in the 'new CDs stack package'. Seems someone else in the house had replaced the DVD into the Stack package without my knowledge instead of returning it to it's proper Stack packagerolleyes. Anyway, I did get the circle to go from Blue to Pink, and send the files to be written from my Document Folder. I was'nt able to determine the mbs before I wrote it because I just did the 'send to CD drive' skipping the dragging to the 'folder/ files to be burned':-o

I'm going to have to be sure and retain only similiar info on each CD or it will be a nightmare finding the info I'm looking for amongst dozens of CDs:confusedrolleyes:-o

chalk up another successful 'Help Session' from the members at Major Geeks. Thanks.

By the way, I'm a small time farmer and even though I have 'no clue', hence my name, about computers, I have been farming 40 years. I help lots of folks out with general farming advice, even small garden stuff, and chickens and cow stuff. So I pass along my knowledge and farm products to other folks who need it, just like you folks do with computer knowledge:cool