Rojo,
Yes, Vista has built in CD/DVD burning capability. To make windows pop up
when you insert a disk, make sure you have set the behavior for this response
in the Play CD/DVDs area in Control Panel. Another way to accomplish
burning is to use Windows Explorer (Start > Accessories) to drag and drop or
to use the copy functions built into the right mouse click. Also, you don't
need to format a disk before you use it to burn regular files. The Windows
Help and Support feature explains under what circumstances you need to
format. You can also use Windows Media Player to burn.
When you're finished putting files into the CD/DVD-ROM drive (either by
dragging and dropping or by copying) for burning, you need to right click the
drive and select "copy these files to disk," (words to that effect). This is
because Windows stores those files you want to copy in a cache area on the
hard drive until you are ready to copy all of them at one time. It's not a
good idea to copy files one at a time. Each burn requires a separate index
built into the dick, which takes up anywhere from to 15-25 MB of space. The
idea is to burn everything at one time to conserve disk space. To see where
the files are located, right click a file and select Properties. You then
can see where the files are stored before you burn them. There are a few
tricks to learn, but it's not hard. You have the right idea in that you
should consult Windows Help and Support, but it takes a careful read when
you're not fully knowledgeable about these functions.
here are links to three burners that people who have used them say work well
with
Vista:
http://www.imgburn.com/
http://www.deepburner.com/
http://www.ashampoo.com/frontend/hom...ssion_langid=2
I obtained those references from another forum. I've not used any of them.
Each one has a free version and a more fully featured pay version. Just for
your information and consideration, in case you want a burner capability
apart from that built into Windows and which are not bloat ware, such as is
the case for some other more popular burners that you mentioned.
--
freddy
"Rojo Habe" wrote:
> I'm confused. Everything in the help files tends to imply that Vista can
> burn a CD or DVD without the need to install Roxio or Nero. In fact, I did
> once manage to do this, using Windows DVD Maker. It still didn't recognise
> my internal Samsung DVDRW drive but did burn successfully to the Fujitsu
> Siemens USB drive that came with my laptop.
>
> Everything I read in the help files leads me to believe I just stick a blank
> disc in the drive and up pops a dialog enabling me to format it. This
> doesn't happen with either drive.
>
> The drives are as follows (as reported by the Device Manager)
>
> Internal Samsung drive: TSST corp CD/DVDW SH-182D SCSI CdRom
> Device
> USB Fujitsu Siemens drive: TOSHIBA CD/DVDW SDR6472U USB Device
>
> They both have the same driver, the standard Microsoft cdrom.sys
> Oh, and I'm fairly sure it isn't a SCSI drive, whatever the Device Manager
> says. I don't think my motherboard has a SCSI controller.
>
> I tried flashing the internal drive with the latest firmware but this didn't
> make any difference. I didn't try this with the external drive because I
> have succeeded with Windows DVD Maker, so I know it must work.
>
> Am I missing some vital drivers, or do I have to install Roxio again. I
> really don't want to have to do this because it's such massive bloatware,
> and it gets all over the registry like a rash.
>
>