I am trying to copy some data on to new CD-RW disks and it all looks fine and says it is successfully copied etc. When I try to read back the disks, they appear to be blank. Am I doing something wrong? I have Windows XP on this computer and want to copy the disks on to my Vista laptop.

What software are you using? Just XP's own, or a different program?

If it's XP's own, you should be able to do it by selecting the files/folders you want to copy, right-click on them, select 'Send to' and click on the drive. To start the copy, go to 'My Computer', right-click on the drive with the CD in it and choose 'Write these files to CD' from the File menu.

You could also check that the drive's record function is enabled:

Right-click on the drive > Go to 'Properties' > Click the 'Recording' tab > Tick the box that enables CD recording on the drive.

(Just better mention. Make sure you are using a CD and not a DVD)

All those things checked out and many thanks for the suggestions. I found that my computer will not work with rewritable disks but only the normal CDRs. I can only say it used to but then computers are like that!!

Another easy method to get data from one computer to another is to use a USB thumb/flash drive.