CD's / DVD's show zero bytes free, 0 used

I thought that there was a fault with my DVD Writer but having just replaced it, I'm still getting the same problem. When I insert a brand new Verbatim (or other make) DVD-R disk, it shows '0 bytes free, 0 bytes used'. The same happens with a DVD+RW and I am unable to format the disk although this should not be necessary.
I'm not sure if this is a software or hardware fault but I would welcome any advice on how to overcome it.

 

Welcome to Major Geeks!

Are there any yellow flags if you check device manager?

 

No - there are no yellow flags and when I check the Writer, I get the message 'This device is working properly' - it isn't!

 

You didn't provide what OS that you are using. And going with that, XP doesn't have native support for DVD, although Vista and Win7 do. It could be that the upper and lower filters for the device are having problems, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060. This contains fixes for XP through Win7.

If XP, then the burner software may have problems and need to be uninstalled and reinstalled. Sometimes deleting the device from device manager and rebooting fixes the issue.

Hope this helps.