Windows 10 won't recogize blank disk

Question

Hello,

I have a refurbished computer that comes with two DVD+RW drives. I've been trying to transfer old family VHS movies to DVD's, and when trying to finally burn the files to DVD, neither of the drives recognize the blank disks I insert. They both just eject the disks and tell me to "Please insert a blank disk". I've scored the internet for clues as to what may be causing this. I've edited the registry keys that I'm told to edit, still no luck (by following the steps here:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/dvdcdrom-drive-wont-recognize-blank-cd-r-in-disk/ee32c56d-55e2-4d4f-a78d-b72748246ec2

Anyways, the device manager recognizes both of these drives, and when I insert a disk to install a program or something it reads that disk, but when I try to burn a DVD it just keeps ejecting the blank disk. I was thinking maybe the drives are not enabled to burn in the BIOS, considering I had an SSD hard drive failure a last year, and had to get a new one, which was installed at Best Buy. I was wondering if maybe they didn't set the drives correctly, but I would think if that was the case then neither drive would work at all. Also, when editing the registry values that are found in the article I referenced, there are no "upper" or "lower" filters for me to delete in the first place. This is the first time I'm attempting to burn anything from these drives.

I also read some stuff about enabling stuff in Group Policy, but the system is Windows 10 Home, so I'm not sure I even have access to that.

Luckily, I have an older system that I can use for the video I'm trying to burn, but I'd rather have my current one with the 2 dvd=rw drives...since it's way faster. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I had the same problem, after years of using the same drive in the same computer to burn many, many disks. At some point, the drive seemingly lost both its recordable drive designation and the Recording tab in it's Properties window. I many suggestions to fix that, with no joy. Finally I came across an odd possibility in a reply to this post (https://www.technipages.com/enable-disable-cd-burning-windows) ... the person replying, who was also missing the "Recording" tab on the Properties for his optical drive, noticed that the "NoCDBurning" registry entry in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer was showing as type REG_SZ - the original author of the post had recommended creating that entry as type DWORD ... when the reply guy changed his "NoCDBurning" entry to type DWORD his optical drive regained its recording status.

I did the same thing myself, and my optical drive is now being treated properly as a recording device.

In any case, after hours of trying different and unsuccessful fixes, this one worked for me in a bout 30 seconds... hope it does for you, but your mileage may vary...

Cheers

Answer 2

Maybe you can try a free tool like CDBurnerXP
to see if it recognizes the blank disks

Answer 3

Hello

Thank you for your question and reaching out.

1. To attempt to repair this, go to Device Manager reached by right clicking the Start button. Under DVD Device, click on Driver tab, first try Update Driver > Automatically. If that fails see if Roll Back is available. If not choose Uninstall, restart PC to reinstall the driver.
2. Please try to Disable any Antivirus software you may have.
3. Please try to connect any External DVD drive and check if you can able see Blank DVD discs as it may be issue with Internal DVD drive itself.

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--If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept as answer--

Answer 4

I've definitely tried step one, several times in fact, with no success. Haven't disabled any Antivirus software, so I'll try that (and I don't have an external DVD drive to try step 3, although I may end up getting one of those because they are super cheep these days). This morning I tried to put a DVD that I burnt yesterday on my older computer, and it did the same thing - spit out the disk and told me to insert a blank disk. Then I tried putting a program installation disk in the drive, and that WAS recoginzed....so it has to have something with the DVD-R. The DVD-R that was spit out WAS playable/burnable in my older system, that also runs Windows 10...so I'm narrowing the issue - the drive can read non-DVD-R disks, but can't read DVD-R disks. The DVD-R disks are good though, and the drive is good...so what could the issue be?