Vista DVD burning suddenly takes a vacation?

Frankly, I've thought the inbuilt DVD/CD burning features of Windows XP and
Vista have always been pretty flaky. The whole thing just doesn't look to me
as though it was designed by someone who actually wanted it to work, what
with the various balloon messages about seeing files that are ready to be
burned and the series of little dialog boxes. But the past couple of days the
feature doesn't even work badly any more. I stick a blank DVD-R disc in the
drive, the dialog pops up to ask me whether I want to use WMP or Windows to
burn files to the disc. I choose to use Windows, I get to designate the files
I want burned, and the disc image creation progress bar comes up. But that
process, after going on for several minutes, just wanders off into la-la land
and quits. The Explorer Window and the dialog box just go away. No error
messages, no nothing.

Has anyone else seen this on Vista Business RTM?

The only disc burning related installation I have done on this computer is
to install IsoRecorder, which works just fine, BTW.

And the answer is (apparently / possibly) a corrupted cache. I looked into
the burning cache location and found only a partial listing of the files I
had designated for the burn. I deleted them manually, rebooted the system,
and burning returned to normal behavior. I'm not sure, but it appears that
the cache was not cleared after a previous burn was performed. I think I'll
just set the wizard to stay up so that I can manually click on the Finish
button after finishing a burn to see if that will keep this from happening
again.

"jimmuh" wrote:

> Frankly, I've thought the inbuilt DVD/CD burning features of Windows XP and
> Vista have always been pretty flaky. The whole thing just doesn't look to me
> as though it was designed by someone who actually wanted it to work, what
> with the various balloon messages about seeing files that are ready to be
> burned and the series of little dialog boxes. But the past couple of days the
> feature doesn't even work badly any more. I stick a blank DVD-R disc in the
> drive, the dialog pops up to ask me whether I want to use WMP or Windows to
> burn files to the disc. I choose to use Windows, I get to designate the files
> I want burned, and the disc image creation progress bar comes up. But that
> process, after going on for several minutes, just wanders off into la-la land
> and quits. The Explorer Window and the dialog box just go away. No error
> messages, no nothing.
>
> Has anyone else seen this on Vista Business RTM?
>
> The only disc burning related installation I have done on this computer is
> to install IsoRecorder, which works just fine, BTW.

I believe I am having a similar problem. How did you clear the cache? Thanks

"jimmuh" wrote:

> And the answer is (apparently / possibly) a corrupted cache. I looked into
> the burning cache location and found only a partial listing of the files I
> had designated for the burn. I deleted them manually, rebooted the system,
> and burning returned to normal behavior. I'm not sure, but it appears that
> the cache was not cleared after a previous burn was performed. I think I'll
> just set the wizard to stay up so that I can manually click on the Finish
> button after finishing a burn to see if that will keep this from happening
> again.
>
> "jimmuh" wrote:
>
> > Frankly, I've thought the inbuilt DVD/CD burning features of Windows XP and
> > Vista have always been pretty flaky. The whole thing just doesn't look to me
> > as though it was designed by someone who actually wanted it to work, what
> > with the various balloon messages about seeing files that are ready to be
> > burned and the series of little dialog boxes. But the past couple of days the
> > feature doesn't even work badly any more. I stick a blank DVD-R disc in the
> > drive, the dialog pops up to ask me whether I want to use WMP or Windows to
> > burn files to the disc. I choose to use Windows, I get to designate the files
> > I want burned, and the disc image creation progress bar comes up. But that
> > process, after going on for several minutes, just wanders off into la-la land
> > and quits. The Explorer Window and the dialog box just go away. No error
> > messages, no nothing.
> >
> > Has anyone else seen this on Vista Business RTM?
> >
> > The only disc burning related installation I have done on this computer is
> > to install IsoRecorder, which works just fine, BTW.

Oh boy! I'll come back tomorrow to try to give you some useful (I hope.)
information. I'm "relaxing" following a heck of a day during which I drove
our beloved cat a couple of hundred miles for a surgical procedure, then
waited for his return to the land of the living and the long drive home.

Now that you know that I love cats (and anything else that moves) you may
wish to reconsider requesting information of any kind from me. But I'll try
to remember to return to tell you just what I did. Right now -- well, I
wouldn't trust anything I had to say.

I do know that it involves invoking the Organize button in Windows Explorer
so that you can see the location of the cache. After that, obviously, it's
just a matter of finding it, and examining (and possibly deleting) the
contents if they don't look "right". In this case, it was pretty obvious to
me that the cache contained partial contents of a previous burn. It was just
as obvious, I think, that those contents should have been deleted following
the successful burn. For some reason the presence of part of the preivous
burn's contents seemed to prevent Vista from realizing that there was more to
be added. Bizarre. Without serious study I would not know whether the failure
belonged to me or to the OS. But I do think it odd that Windows seems to
allow so many avenues to failure when, if it's really needed, the designers
of the UI should just lead the user down the old garden path to success --
instead of letting him wallow about amongst multiple pathways to failure.
It's cool to have a logical system that just works in a myriad of ways. It's
not cool to have a system that LOOKS logical enough to allow multiple
approaches, but which fails to produce a desired result unless you toe the
line and follow a specific recipe for success. If a specific recipe is
required, then, for pity's sake, tell us what it is!

"RJ" wrote:

> I believe I am having a similar problem. How did you clear the cache? Thanks
>
> "jimmuh" wrote:
>
> > And the answer is (apparently / possibly) a corrupted cache. I looked into
> > the burning cache location and found only a partial listing of the files I
> > had designated for the burn. I deleted them manually, rebooted the system,
> > and burning returned to normal behavior. I'm not sure, but it appears that
> > the cache was not cleared after a previous burn was performed. I think I'll
> > just set the wizard to stay up so that I can manually click on the Finish
> > button after finishing a burn to see if that will keep this from happening
> > again.
> >
> > "jimmuh" wrote:
> >
> > > Frankly, I've thought the inbuilt DVD/CD burning features of Windows XP and
> > > Vista have always been pretty flaky. The whole thing just doesn't look to me
> > > as though it was designed by someone who actually wanted it to work, what
> > > with the various balloon messages about seeing files that are ready to be
> > > burned and the series of little dialog boxes. But the past couple of days the
> > > feature doesn't even work badly any more. I stick a blank DVD-R disc in the
> > > drive, the dialog pops up to ask me whether I want to use WMP or Windows to
> > > burn files to the disc. I choose to use Windows, I get to designate the files
> > > I want burned, and the disc image creation progress bar comes up. But that
> > > process, after going on for several minutes, just wanders off into la-la land
> > > and quits. The Explorer Window and the dialog box just go away. No error
> > > messages, no nothing.
> > >
> > > Has anyone else seen this on Vista Business RTM?
> > >
> > > The only disc burning related installation I have done on this computer is
> > > to install IsoRecorder, which works just fine, BTW.

Just in case it helps in the interim, I thought I should add one other note.
It seems that it's best to be PATIENT with Vista when it's preparing a large
assemblage of files for a burn. I have a reasonably fast system -- a Dell
Precision M70 workstation. It's a notebook. Fast for a notebook. But still a
notebook. And a 2 gig burn to DVD takes it some time, under Vista, to
organize.

I have deliberately avoided all third party burning solutions at this early
stage of evaluation to see how the native elements of the OS perform at this
task. I say that, but I did install Alan Feinman's IsoRecorder so that I
could (duh) burn ISOs. (I hope I got his name right. The dude has made some
serious contributions to the community.)

When I'm sober I hope I'll remember to return to try to provide whatever
solid information I can manage.

Today has been tough. Wifey is really attached to this cat. And, to tell you
the truth, so am I.

"RJ" wrote:

> I believe I am having a similar problem. How did you clear the cache? Thanks
>
> "jimmuh" wrote:
>
> > And the answer is (apparently / possibly) a corrupted cache. I looked into
> > the burning cache location and found only a partial listing of the files I
> > had designated for the burn. I deleted them manually, rebooted the system,
> > and burning returned to normal behavior. I'm not sure, but it appears that
> > the cache was not cleared after a previous burn was performed. I think I'll
> > just set the wizard to stay up so that I can manually click on the Finish
> > button after finishing a burn to see if that will keep this from happening
> > again.
> >
> > "jimmuh" wrote:
> >
> > > Frankly, I've thought the inbuilt DVD/CD burning features of Windows XP and
> > > Vista have always been pretty flaky. The whole thing just doesn't look to me
> > > as though it was designed by someone who actually wanted it to work, what
> > > with the various balloon messages about seeing files that are ready to be
> > > burned and the series of little dialog boxes. But the past couple of days the
> > > feature doesn't even work badly any more. I stick a blank DVD-R disc in the
> > > drive, the dialog pops up to ask me whether I want to use WMP or Windows to
> > > burn files to the disc. I choose to use Windows, I get to designate the files
> > > I want burned, and the disc image creation progress bar comes up. But that
> > > process, after going on for several minutes, just wanders off into la-la land
> > > and quits. The Explorer Window and the dialog box just go away. No error
> > > messages, no nothing.
> > >
> > > Has anyone else seen this on Vista Business RTM?
> > >
> > > The only disc burning related installation I have done on this computer is
> > > to install IsoRecorder, which works just fine, BTW.

I am very sorry about your cat. We lost a dog this last year. It was very
hard. I am glad the cat is doing better. I couldn't fing the cache in
explorer. It seems there has been some difficulty burning cd/dvd at least in
the past. I may have to wait and hope an upcoming update solves the problem.
Thanks for your help under the circumstances.

"jimmuh" wrote:

> Just in case it helps in the interim, I thought I should add one other note.
> It seems that it's best to be PATIENT with Vista when it's preparing a large
> assemblage of files for a burn. I have a reasonably fast system -- a Dell
> Precision M70 workstation. It's a notebook. Fast for a notebook. But still a
> notebook. And a 2 gig burn to DVD takes it some time, under Vista, to
> organize.
>
> I have deliberately avoided all third party burning solutions at this early
> stage of evaluation to see how the native elements of the OS perform at this
> task. I say that, but I did install Alan Feinman's IsoRecorder so that I
> could (duh) burn ISOs. (I hope I got his name right. The dude has made some
> serious contributions to the community.)
>
> When I'm sober I hope I'll remember to return to try to provide whatever
> solid information I can manage.
>
> Today has been tough. Wifey is really attached to this cat. And, to tell you
> the truth, so am I.
>
> "RJ" wrote:
>
> > I believe I am having a similar problem. How did you clear the cache? Thanks
> >
> > "jimmuh" wrote:
> >
> > > And the answer is (apparently / possibly) a corrupted cache. I looked into
> > > the burning cache location and found only a partial listing of the files I
> > > had designated for the burn. I deleted them manually, rebooted the system,
> > > and burning returned to normal behavior. I'm not sure, but it appears that
> > > the cache was not cleared after a previous burn was performed. I think I'll
> > > just set the wizard to stay up so that I can manually click on the Finish
> > > button after finishing a burn to see if that will keep this from happening
> > > again.
> > >
> > > "jimmuh" wrote:
> > >
> > > > Frankly, I've thought the inbuilt DVD/CD burning features of Windows XP and
> > > > Vista have always been pretty flaky. The whole thing just doesn't look to me
> > > > as though it was designed by someone who actually wanted it to work, what
> > > > with the various balloon messages about seeing files that are ready to be
> > > > burned and the series of little dialog boxes. But the past couple of days the
> > > > feature doesn't even work badly any more. I stick a blank DVD-R disc in the
> > > > drive, the dialog pops up to ask me whether I want to use WMP or Windows to
> > > > burn files to the disc. I choose to use Windows, I get to designate the files
> > > > I want burned, and the disc image creation progress bar comes up. But that
> > > > process, after going on for several minutes, just wanders off into la-la land
> > > > and quits. The Explorer Window and the dialog box just go away. No error
> > > > messages, no nothing.
> > > >
> > > > Has anyone else seen this on Vista Business RTM?
> > > >
> > > > The only disc burning related installation I have done on this computer is
> > > > to install IsoRecorder, which works just fine, BTW.

Hi, RJ.

Probably the easiest and best thing to do to locate the cache is to put a
blank writeable disc in the writer, then highlight that drive in Explorer's
left pane. You should see a list of anything that's waiting to be burned to
disc (contents of the cache, in other words) in Explorer's right pane. That
will be a list of files and folders, and they should be distinguished from
"real" (?) files and folders on your system by dint of a downward-pointing
arrow being included in the file/folder icons.

When I saw this listing I knew that the cache hadn't been emptied properly
from a previous burn. That previous burn had been completed successfully, and
the files in the temporary cache should have been removed automatically. Or,
at least, that's how I would hope that it should work. But there were files
and folders listed when I looked. What's more, the list of files and folders
was NOT a complete listing of the previous burn's contents, and I figured
there was no way that Windows should default to deleting a PORTION of the
contents of the cache, once writing was finished and it was confirmed that
the temporary files were to be deleted. So I blew them away, and recovered
the ability to write discs again.

Nonetheless, this feature in Vista is shakey, at best. It has such a
slap-dash, haphazard look to it. If I want to burn files to disc in this OS I
have to do a little walking on eggshells, it seems. That's not how it should
work. Data backup is one of the most important assets of an operating system.
The user shouldn't be left twisting in the wind with a non-responsive system
and no clue as to whether / whether not / when the silly wizard process is
going to stop chuckling to itself and give out some indication as tp whether
or not the burn is going to be successful.



"RJ" wrote:

> I am very sorry about your cat. We lost a dog this last year. It was very
> hard. I am glad the cat is doing better. I couldn't fing the cache in
> explorer. It seems there has been some difficulty burning cd/dvd at least in
> the past. I may have to wait and hope an upcoming update solves the problem.
> Thanks for your help under the circumstances.
>
> "jimmuh" wrote:
>
> > Just in case it helps in the interim, I thought I should add one other note.
> > It seems that it's best to be PATIENT with Vista when it's preparing a large
> > assemblage of files for a burn. I have a reasonably fast system -- a Dell
> > Precision M70 workstation. It's a notebook. Fast for a notebook. But still a
> > notebook. And a 2 gig burn to DVD takes it some time, under Vista, to
> > organize.
> >
> > I have deliberately avoided all third party burning solutions at this early
> > stage of evaluation to see how the native elements of the OS perform at this
> > task. I say that, but I did install Alan Feinman's IsoRecorder so that I
> > could (duh) burn ISOs. (I hope I got his name right. The dude has made some
> > serious contributions to the community.)
> >
> > When I'm sober I hope I'll remember to return to try to provide whatever
> > solid information I can manage.
> >
> > Today has been tough. Wifey is really attached to this cat. And, to tell you
> > the truth, so am I.
> >
> > "RJ" wrote:
> >
> > > I believe I am having a similar problem. How did you clear the cache? Thanks
> > >
> > > "jimmuh" wrote:
> > >
> > > > And the answer is (apparently / possibly) a corrupted cache. I looked into
> > > > the burning cache location and found only a partial listing of the files I
> > > > had designated for the burn. I deleted them manually, rebooted the system,
> > > > and burning returned to normal behavior. I'm not sure, but it appears that
> > > > the cache was not cleared after a previous burn was performed. I think I'll
> > > > just set the wizard to stay up so that I can manually click on the Finish
> > > > button after finishing a burn to see if that will keep this from happening
> > > > again.
> > > >
> > > > "jimmuh" wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Frankly, I've thought the inbuilt DVD/CD burning features of Windows XP and
> > > > > Vista have always been pretty flaky. The whole thing just doesn't look to me
> > > > > as though it was designed by someone who actually wanted it to work, what
> > > > > with the various balloon messages about seeing files that are ready to be
> > > > > burned and the series of little dialog boxes. But the past couple of days the
> > > > > feature doesn't even work badly any more. I stick a blank DVD-R disc in the
> > > > > drive, the dialog pops up to ask me whether I want to use WMP or Windows to
> > > > > burn files to the disc. I choose to use Windows, I get to designate the files
> > > > > I want burned, and the disc image creation progress bar comes up. But that
> > > > > process, after going on for several minutes, just wanders off into la-la land
> > > > > and quits. The Explorer Window and the dialog box just go away. No error
> > > > > messages, no nothing.
> > > > >
> > > > > Has anyone else seen this on Vista Business RTM?
> > > > >
> > > > > The only disc burning related installation I have done on this computer is
> > > > > to install IsoRecorder, which works just fine, BTW.