Windows Explorer displays my DVD RW drive as a CD drive

Last Friday, I wanted to copy a CD using my Sony Optiarc AD-7261S DVD/CD Burner and Windows 7 Home Premium. I don't have a dedicated disc burning program - I just use Windows explorer to do it.

Popped in the CD I wanted to copy and copied its contents to the desktop. Took that CD out, popped in a blank CD, the drive whirred a bit then nothing .... !

That's odd I thought . Didn't do this last time I burned a disc (a few weeks ago!!). Double-clicked the drive icon and got a message saying that "The disc in Drive D:/ is unformatted and must be formatted before it can be used". It was at this point that I noticed that Windows explorer was displaying the drive as "CD Drive (D:)" I'm sure it used to be displayed as "DVD RW Drive (D:)" but I've no idea when it might have changed.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I've discovered that the drive will read and play CDs and DVDs with content but doesn't recognise empty ones, therefore I can't use Windows explorer to burn a disc anymore. I've updated the drive's firmware. I've uninstalled and reinstalled it but nothing makes any difference and Windows continues to display the drive as "CD Drive (D:)".

Device Manager is happy that the drive is working and displays it correctly as a Sony Optiarc DVD-RW ATA device.

I later discovered that Windows Media Player and iTunes can both 'see' empty discs and though I haven't tried it, I'm assuming that as they can see them, they could probably burn them.

So, this wierdness seems to affect only Windows Explorer. I've done lots of research on the internet to see if I can find a solution but the symptoms I've described seem unique to me.

The only 'big' change that I've made to my computer was back in January when I installed Acronis True Image Home 2012. Having made an image of my C drive on our Synology NAS, I then burned a Rescue CD. That was the last time I used the burner but I didn't notice if anything had changed in Windows explorer at the time but now I wonder.

Just wondered if anybody else had experienced any similar issues of if anyone could suggest a fix.

I don't know of a fix as such, but was just wondering whether you had considered using Windows Media Player instead?

Burn a CD or DVD in Windows Media Player: frequently asked questions

Many of us use ImgBurn too, it's free and it does a good job.

http://www.imgburn.com/

Until this strange bug reared its ugly head, I didn't know Media Player could burn discs

Finding out accidentally that it could also showed me that there was nothing wrong with my burner (which is only just a year old and has had very little use) so I'll either use Media Player from now on or download your suggested ImgBurn software.

Would still be nice if anyone knows of a fix for the explorer 'bug' though.