There are a number of standard problems that can cause CD/DVD burns to fail. First check the following list:

1. Do not use your computer while the burn takes place. Burning is very sensitive, and irregular writing can be caused when you run other applications.
2. Burners are sensitive to the brand of disc media you use. Some media will fail every time in one burner and work fine in another. This is particularly relevant if one of the last few tracks fails. Please try a variety of brands.
3. Don't touch the surface of the disc. Any fingerprints badly affect the write and read process. Only hold a disc by the center clear part or by the edges.
4. Similarly, scratched Rewritables (CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, BD-RE, or even CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R) will write badly. Avoid discs with any visible scratches.
5. Users of Windows 95 and 98 require an ASPI layer to be installed. Windows 95 users should check that they are using the correct version. Adaptec version 4.60 is the last working version for Windows 95.
6. Some errors can happen due to faults in the firmware of your burner. Notably, the Blu-ray burner BWU-100A cannot correctly burn some DVD media with the firmware it ships with. Some media burning errors can also be fixed by upgrading your firmware. Please visit the website of the drive's manufacturer for instructions on upgrading this. Please note, you should be careful doing this as you can render the drive unusable if you do it incorrectly.

Under Windows 2000/XP you must be logged onto Windows as an Administrator user to burn CDs/DVDs/Blu-ray discs.

Otherwise there are many other possible causes of failure. If you are using an ASPI layer (normally Windows 9x users) you may have a version with bugs. You should check your version and upgrade to the latest version.

With Windows XP and Blu-ray video or Blu-ray data discs burned with UDF, a 3rd party UDF 2.5 driver is required to read or write the disc.