Hi Briareos,

I'm a bit confused by your statement,
"...After it finishes buring the dvd and doing the finalizing part it says to put the tray back in (it ejects after each part is finished) but the drive stays closed...".

So if the disc is ejected, how is it that the tray stays closed?

In Common settings > Write >
Click on Do not eject disc when finished burning
and that should put an end to the eject issue.

You mentioned cd's, but I think that's just a typo and you meant dvd's
Windows (? XP) has no native dvd burning software. What I mean to say is that windows explorer will not "see a dvd", whether or not there are files on it, (not like a cd which it can deal with). Your pc's software player will play it just fine and if you use an application like nero or some other dvd burn software, your pc can "see" the dvd just fine.

To answer your question about an exact duplicate, clone mode is best for that particular task.