I'm having trouble with both of the DVD drives on my machine. Neither will recognize the data on the disks that I insert. They see the CDs, but I receive an error message- "Disk is not formatted. Windows cannot read from this disk. The disk might be corrupted, or it could be using a format that is not compatible with Windows." I have uninstalled/reinstalled the drivers. I have run PC Doctor- all DVD/CD drive tests passed. I have run the Doug Knox CD-DVD Fix utility. Nothing has helped. Can someone please point me in the right direction? Thanks.

When did this start happening? Try a system restorer to the last date when you think it was working correctly.

I burned a CD successfully about a week ago, so it's been since then. I can't think of anything specific that I've done since then that would cause the issue. I've tried 3 different restore points back to about a month ago, but the problem persists.

No new software or or driver software that you have installed lately? It deff sounds like a OS issues.

I would say try system file checker, but apprently you can't put in a any CD to run something in windows or can you. Was this test done by reading cd's or was it a vritual test?

Next best thing is to try a system repair, but then again if your disc is an XP Restore disc in which I assume it is, because you have a namebrand pc and it will not work with those types of disc.

Try to go into safe mode and see if anything loads on a disc. If it does then you may have to reformat Windows to fix the problem.

Flon advises PC Doctor ran ok.

Surely this runs under windows *AND* reads a cd or dvd as part of the test.

Flon - have you tried to read the failed disks on another PC?

Have you tried reading original CD's *AND* DVD's rather than any burnt inhouse or elsewhere?

Good Luck - Keep us posted.

I'm not aware of PC Doctor thus is why I asked if he ran those test with real CD's or was it a vritual type of test.

The PC Doctor Optical Drive Test does linear and random access tests on each of a self-burnt data CD, a commercially-recorded DVD, and a sound test on a commercial audio CD. Everything passed; I was even able to hear audio on the Boston CD I inserted for the test (which had not played on its own when I tried it 30 minutes before the test)!

Software-wise, the only thing I can recall is the addition of a couple of software synths last week, but as I stated before, a system restore back to before these installations does not repair the drive problem.

OK, some progress:

I tried to burn a CD from files on my computer; it worked! But when I inserted the disk to play, I got the "not compatible" error message. So it occurred to me to try to play it through Windows Media Player. It worked! Then I loaded a commercial audio CD, then a DVD, both of which played through Media Player, but are still unrecognized by their respective drives when I "Explore" through the context menu. Any thoughts? I appreciate everyone's help so far.

UPDATE:

I took one of the "faulty" home-made data disks to work this morning and put it in my office computer. It read just fine.

So we've ruled out the disk, we've ruled out the operation of the optical drive, I'd say it's a software problem. Can any one tell me where to look to make sure all the parameters for controlling the optical drives are correct? Thanks.

This does now appear to be a software issue, as you advise one application works without problemm.

Are you able to identify the application(s) that are failing when attempting to read.

It could be the application(s) update automatically and the latest update is causing the problem.

e.g. updating for Windows Vista may not then work with a previous o/s.

Check the authors website as others may be experiencing the same.

Good Luck - Keep us Posted.

SYNOPSIS and UPDATE:

When I insert a CD or DVD into either my DVD Writer or DVD ROM, I get a message- "Windows cannot read from this disk. The disk might be corrupted, or it could be using a format that is not compatible with Windows." If I try to PLAY a music CD or a DVD through a software player (Windows Media Player), the disks work fine- I can hear the music, I can watch the movie. However, they will not "autoplay," and I can't use the "Explore" function of the context menu. My biggest problem is with home-burned data CDs- I can't see or use the information stored on these disks. All of these disks worked fine before (as a guess, I'd say 2 months ago). The disks currently work fine in other computers. I have tried every means of restoring functionality that I know of- system restore, driver uninstall/reinstall, driver update, firmware update, physical disconnect/reconnect, upper/lower filters delete, registry cleaners- nothing works! A "PC Doctor" scan of both of my optical drives comes up with a clean bill of health (and the media disks are fine as well). HP Customer Support has no solution.

I did a search here on the forum for similar issues. I found a couple which appeared to be identical to mine- they were never resolved either, so no help there.
(See: http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/...

http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/...

Is there some software genius here who understands the cause of this issue and can direct me to a resolution? As far as I can see, my next step would be an XP reinstall, which is never pleasant. Thanks for your attention.

FROM CHUCK 2:

Two things to look at ---
How to Enable or Disable Automatically Running CD-ROMs
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...
--------------------
The AutoRun feature or the AutoPlay feature does not work when you insert a CD-ROM in the drive

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...

[And as I replied to Chuck 2's original post, all reccommended registry settings were already set to the correct values, so there is no change in the situation.]