Why won't my DVD drives accept disks?

[chakka35]

I have bought a new pack of DVD+RW disks. Neither the DVD drive in my wife's Toshiba laptop nor that in my HP PC will recognise these disks; they keep asking me to put a disk in the drive when I have already done so. Both drives will play commercial autostart disks and those that I have burnt in the past.
Am I missing something?

[MarkRae]

http://wiki.answers.c...initializing_a_DVD-rw

[chakka35]

Thanks, old friend MarkRae, but that doesn't answwer my question, I'm afraid.

[AlBags]

Put them in up the correct way?

[rojash]

"and those that I have burnt in the past"
Are those that you burned in the pas RW or R?

[chakka35]

rojash, they were R.

Albags, gosh I never thought of that. My wife says that I'm getting thin because I shove my food in my ears instead of my mouth. Any more helpful ideas?

[rojash]

So the drives work OK with R but not RW. (ie with Write Once but not with rewritable)
That would seem to suggest that they are not capable of Rewriting. Does it actually say DVD RW on the drive?

[AlBags]

You'd be surprised how many people do it .. especially with unbranded discs .. Silver top, silver bottom.
They are either a) not supported b) upside down c) full and un-writeable d) drive naffed or e) Windows needs rebooting as reader failed and switched off by Windows.
Go figure : )

[chakka35]

Thanks folks. Working on it. Cheers.

[scotman]

Are the disks a brand that you have used successfully before?