can't burn CDs, either on Linux or Windows

[rlindsey0]

I find I can't burn CDs and DVDs with Brasero any more. At least not Linux .ISOs, which is what I am trying to do. The burning process goes along until near the end, when I get a message that includes the phrase "Internal SDK error: CStarBurn_ScsiTransportSPTI::ExecuteCDB(): Command failed".

I thought the problem must have just been Brasero, but when I switched over to Windows (I dual boot on the same laptop), I had a similar problem with CDBurnerXP v4.2.7.1849. At least, the burn failed, though I don't recall if the error message was the same. i do know, from looking at the CDBurnerXP forums, that this exact error has been reported with the program on Windows. Apparently no one has solved it yet.

Has anyone seen the error above, and do you know what it means and why it would occur in both Linux and Windows? Could it be a sign of a drive going bad?

Oddly enough, I was able to burn an audio CD with iTunes in Windows. I don't know why that worked but the ISO burning didn't.

Thanks for any help.

[Aging Technogeek]

Whenever a piece of hardware acts improperly with two apps in two different OS, suspect the hardware first.

The reason it failed to burn an .iso file but worked on a music CD is, I think, a question of data density. An .iso file is highly compressed so the data density is very high ( the Mint 8 .iso compresses about 2.5 gigs of data into a 686 meg CD). This is why you are always cautioned to burn .iso files at the lowest possible speed.

The density on a music CD is much lower (little or no compression) so it is easier for the hardware to handle.

[rlindsey0]

That sounds plausible. I've had this computer for two years now, and I never used to have these problems with any burning program, either on Linux or on XP, even though I frequently burned ISOs at max speed. Maybe the drive is just wearing down.

[Midnighter]

Burners use seperate lasers for cds and dvds. Was the iso a DVD image? In my laptop, the cd laser has worn, and it can no longer read cds, but handles dvds fine. I need a new drive/burner, but since most of my stuff is on dvds, and the rest works fine, I'm not rushing.

[rlindsey0]

No, it was a CD image, but you raise another interesting point. My drive will read CDs and DVDs fine when the computer is up and running, but the computer won't boot from a bootable DVD (like, say, Mint KDE). I've tried to go into the BIOS to see if there's a setting there that causes this, but with no luck. I don't know if this is also a hardware issue, or just a configuration issue that i don't know how to resolve.