i have an unusual problem: i have clonedvd2 and anydvd latest versions installed. i am using windows 7 with 4 gig ram and 750 gb of hd (65% free space) my computer will no longer recognize an origional dvd that i insert in either of my 2 dvdrw drives; however, clonedvd does and will function properly. i can't watch a dvd placed in either drive with windows media player or realplayer (the computer doesn't even recognize the dvd in explorer although the disk drive does spin up when inserted) if i click on the drive that i put the dvd in, the drive tray opens and prompts me to insert a disc. i uninstalled anydvd and clonedvd2 and cleaned my registry then reinstalled them with the latest update directly from your site. this had no effect. i tried uninstalling both drives and reinstalling them (both are plug and play with no software). this seemed to fix the problem but when i tried using clonedvd to backup a disc again, it took about 6 times as long and the computer acted so slowly that i couldn't do anything else until it was done. i used a shadow copy to revert my hard drive and everything reset back to the origional problem. any ideas?
thanks, ray
IMHO, this doesn't seem like a problem with CloneDVD or AnyDVD. It sounds like either a damaged Windows install or a conflicting driver issue. Did you suffer any hard crashes (that crash the whole system)? Some further questions that might help clarify:
You said these drives are plug n play. Are these external drives? If yes, are they connected via USB2, USB3, firewire or eSATA Did you uninstall them from Device Manager or just unplug them? Did you uninstall CloneDVD and AnyDVD before uninstalling these drives?
Do you see the drives in Windows Explorer without a disk inserted? You said that Windows doesn't recognize the DVD but is the drive shown?
You say the drive isn't recognized, do you mean that you don't see the autoplay dialog (that asks you what you want to do with the disk) that typically appears when you insert a disk?
There are two or three things I would try based on the information available.
First, it's strongly suggested that you have a full backup at this point. It is possible that system file damage might require a reinstall of the whole system and things could go from bad to worse. You are warned.
I would run a drive error scan to be sure there are no problems with the hard drive/file system. A damaged file could cause similar problems. (Select the drive (highlighted) in Explorer, right click on the drive, select properties, then, on the tools tab, click Check Now. You may need to restart for the check to be performed. Observe if any problems are detected (it goes by fast just before rebooting).)
Run the Windows System File Checker. This little program will go through your Windows installation checking that critical windows files match what it expects and if not replaces those files with ones it was expecting. You'll find instructions here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833
Boot into safe mode (press F8 just after posting to get the menu selction). Open Device Manager (in Control Panel), open the DVD /CD ROM drives section. Uninstall all drives shown (right click on the drive and select uninstall). Reboot. Upon entering Windows the drives should be re-detected and re-installed (a reboot may be required and is recommended).