hi blutach,

i normally do have the lock volume enabled, just the last try was with it disabled just to see if this was the cause of the error. but no luck.

i can burn with no problems with the 20a1p drive and used to be able to use the 165p6s. just recently has this error occurred. the first time it happed was when i had overspeed enabled and was writing 12x on the 8x media. i went through almost 100 disc (between both drives) writing at 12x with no problems. if i changed the speed from 12x down to 8x then i was able to use the 165p6s drive. now its not working even using 8x.

now if i just open ImgBurn i can still overspeed 12x and even 16x. but no luck when using ImgBurn with my ripping program. (but it still works with the 20a1p)

i have both drives on the secondary ide channel. 165p6s as master and 20a1p as slave. ive swapped drives and reinstalled the ide controllers. but still no luck. i have reset the default settings and only made the changes i mentioned in my first post.

ImgBurn reports Writing Lead-in for about 2min then comes up with the error. when i look at the disc about an inch from the center has been written. when i explore the disc in windows i see dvd-video files and can even start to play the dvd but then it freezes. dvdinfo pro reports the volume name as the name of the film.

as for another program accessing my drive, this is simply not happening. only my ripping program is running and a few essential (or convenience) windows services. ive been using ImgBurn as the burning engine for several months. even before it was officially available as the burn engine.

again thank you for any input and help,

troy