I have a recovery partition on my Compaq, but the pre-installed program to create back-up discs of the partition does not read any blank disc I put in my DVD burner (other programs have no problem detecting the discs). What other software can I use to create a recovery DVD from the partition? My hard drive is failing and I need to replace it ASAP, but I have no other recovery discs to install on the new HDD. Thanks in advance.

Are you using a DVD or cd disk that it isn't recognizing? Are you able to put a cd or dvd in the drive that has data on it and view the files to test if the drive is working at all? My compaq has Roxio 9.0 and to create the recovery disc, I have to use a dvd due to the large amount of data being burned. Silence is golden but duct tape is silver

Its possible that your CD/DVD rewriter optical is out of sync. I've read that DVDs typically do not work and you need to use CDs. With Compaq, it seems they require between 5 & 12 disks. #1. Try installing another CD writer. #2. Enter into Safe Mode and do the recovery from there. #3. I have Recovery Disks for Compaq Models: SR1020Z, SR1030V, SR1030Z, SR1601NX,SR1602HM, SR1603WM, SR1610NX, SR1611NX, SR1614X, SR1616NX, SR1617CL, SR1620NX, SR1630NX, SR1638NX I'd be willing to sell them for $35 (including shipping)