Why won't my computer read my CDR's when I know there are docs on them?

[BaileyCatts]

I copied a bunch documents and pictures files off my dad's computer onto CDRs. Then triple-checked to make sure the docs/files were on the CDRs before deleting all the files off his computer (because his computer might end of going to one of my brothers many many In-Laws, so I wanted all my docs off there). I confirmed the CDRs were good, deleted all the files off my dad's computer, brought them to my house .... now when I put the CDR in my computer, the CDRs are blank, no files show! I take the CDR back to dad's computer, the files are there! I'm going to lose access to my dad's computer soon, and I don't know what good it would do to load them all back onto dad's computer, then copy them off again, if my computer won't read the CDRs, and there are some important documents on there I need, not to mention some of the last ever pictures of my dad!

What's the problem? Why won't my computer read the CDRs? I know the drive works because I have a game I play on my computer where you must have a CD loaded to play the game to make the icon on my desktop work, and I just played it.

[michiruwater]

The easiest thing might be to just buy a flashdrive. Much more useful and efficient for moving files, and it will absolutely work in both computers.

Did you actually burn the files onto the CD-R, or just put the files there in preparation to burn? I remember on an older computer at my dad's house, you could place the files in the folder for the CD-R, but then you had to click a separate thing to actually burn the files to the disk. I wish I could be more specific, but this was a while ago. I think the computer ran Windows XP. I haven't tried to burn anything to a CD-R in a while, so I don't know if later versions of Windows require the same thing, but I would check to see if there's something in the folder that allows you to actually burn the files to the disk. It might say something like 'write these files to CD'.

What operating system are you using, and what is your dad's computer using?

[BaileyCatts]

Yea, I definitely did actually burn the CDRs. At my dad's computer, I'm pretty sure its XP; mine is as well. I'll haul all the CDRs back to the house and get a flash drive and try that. I hate it when this computer stuff don't work. And I even made two copies of each set of documents on CDRs just to make sure I had back up copies, which ain't working in my computer either. Ggrrrrr.

[professordeb]

IIRC, some machines don't read CDR+ but will read CDR- (at least I think that's how it goes but it might be reversed). I know we used to make copies of hockey games and sometimes people couldn't view the game because of this difference. Is there any chance you could use DVDs instead? Of course, that would mean having a DVD burner instead of a CD burner but I have noticed since we went to DVDs and DVD burners we have not had these type of problems. DVDs also tend to have more storage space on them.
Probably the easiest thing though, is to get a large capacity memory stick and go from there.

[Artemis@BC]

IIRC, some machines don't read CDR+ but will read CDR- (at least I think that's how it goes but it might be reversed).

+R and -R formats apply to recordable DVD discs, not CDs. In CDs, the two regular formats are -R (regular recordable, "permanent") and -RW (re-writable, can record more than once).

However many CD drives won't read a CD data disc recorded on another computer unless it has been "finalized." (aka "closed") Sometimes that happens automatically, but depending on what burning software you're using it's sometimes a final extra step after the recording that you have to select.

I agree, using flash drives/memory sticks is just easier.