Windows does not recognise a blank disc in a DVD drive.

Anonymous
2011-07-24T12:01:42+00:00

When trying to burn a CD, and having a blank CD-R in the DVD drive, I get "Windows can't read the disc in Drive D". I have tried other discs and DVDs but it seems Windows does not recognise a blank disc. I have another DVD drive and the same is true here as well.  I have tried updating the drivers and disabling and re-enabling the drives but to no avail. CDs or DVDs with content are recognised however.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2011-09-15T18:34:48+00:00

I had the same problem in Windows 7 32-bit (suspect this would fix in Vista as well). After trying everything else under the sun went into Services (Search for programs and files, type "Services") and looked up "Shell Hardware Detection". Found that it was disabled (not sure how it got that way). Right clicked on it to get Properties. Changed Startup type to "Automatic", hit Apply and OK. Problem resolved without even having to reboot!

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-07-28T14:34:54+00:00

    Can't do this either...there's a blank DVD in there...click format and Wins 10 says there is no disc in E: (My DVD location)

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-28T22:01:38+00:00

    Sorry I can't be of more help. I can't even explain why formatting the CD works, as CDs aren't supposed to need to be formatted.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-30T14:16:41+00:00

    Wow it worked. many thanks for your help

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-12-17T04:07:09+00:00

    FWIW, I had the same issue with both DVD drives in my Dell Studio XPS 8100. I tried every suggestion I could find, including some very good steps at http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03280768

    After doing step 4 on the above page, and getting a result of "no media" I decided that the odds were pretty good that my two OEM DVD drives were both toast.

    Purchased two new ASUS DVD drives, installed them, and viola! Working beautifully! The old drives were indeed toast. So if you've tried everything and the drives do not recognize any media, there's a good chance that the drive is dead, especially if like me, everything looks fine in Device Manager, BIOS, Disk Management, etc.

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