dvd drive not recognizing dvd-r's

I did a small search for this and came up with nothing tailored to my specific question.

Background story -
My apartment recently got broken into and several of my PS2 games (among other things) were stolen. Luckily I had my PS2 with me on the trip I was taking. Instead of going back and paying for these games all over again I decided to do the torrent thing. I am against piracy, but it is the only way for me to get back what is rightfully mine. anyway - onward

My dvd-r drive does not recognize dvd-r disks. it simply says "no disk".. but it does fine with cd's cd-r's dvd movies etc. I'm not sure if this has always been a problem or not because this is the first time I have ever needed to use it. I've had this computer for acouple years now (HP Pavilion a450n) and this is the only problem I have encountered.

I do delete programs I havent used in awhile regularly, could it be that one of these particular programs contained something I needed in order for the drive to read dvd's? I don't see that as being possible, but computers are one of the many unexplored areas in my map of life.

any ideas?

 

I have an idea... Don't post about piracy on these forums. It will get locked. No matter if yours were stolen or not.

 

You would also need to modify your PS2 itself by microsoldering extra parts onto its motherboard. It'll be cheaper and easier to just buy the replacement games.

 

^i've had that done already because i like to play japanese titles.


and sorry for posting about piracy, i just figured since i wasnt trying to truly steal someone would be able to help me.