Windows was reinstalled because the computer was infected with the "about:blank" virus/homepage hijack thing. I tried to get rid of it many different ways (one forum had a thread that was 45 pages long with different ways to get rid of it - I tried quite a few but none worked). By the end, Windows would almost always freeze on startup, causing me to have to kill the power and try again. It was looking rather bleak so I opted for the reinstall.

I have seen three drives like this in the last 3 months.
All users were running software that creates ISO files from CD.
(Not all the same programs)

Have you installed anything other than Nero?

After reinstalling the OS I ended up flashing the drives.
I ONLY suggest this as a last resort since in general 1 in 10 result in creating a doorstop..

Yeah, I also installed some anti-virus and spyware stuff. McAfee VirusScan 2005, McAfee personal Firewall, SpyBot, AVG Antivirus, WebRoot SptSweeper, a few others, all the driver stuff to get things back up and running (Wingman, SanDisk, Acrobat, etc.)

Anything for working with CD's...?

WInISO or ANY other Image/burning tools?

The only Image type thing installed recently was included (I'm assuming) with the Nero 6.6.0.8. My "F" and "G" Drives, formerly listed as where my digital camera stuff went into, now reads "Nero Imagedrive 2". I onl7y installed this new Nero as an attempt to repair the existing freeze-up problem, so the problem existed before the Nero install.

do you need a copy of Prassi abCD? I know a place ................

The CD's that came with the burner, way back when, have two burning programs on them. One is Nero 5.0 and the other is Prassi abCD. I had installed them both, figuring, as I was reinstalling all the other driver stuff, that if they gave them to my, I must need them. Later, I decided to remove the Prassi and guess what! I could burn again. No freeze up! After countless attempts and freeze ups, things were finally working......Once...... The next time I went to burn, it froze up again. I couldn't believe it. Since then, I've been successful one more time and unsuccessful about 20 times.
What could it be?????

What all did you install? Some drivers will interfere with Nero and / or Prassi. Was there any other cd recording software? Since it did work at one time this suggests that something has changed since then, and thew only thing you mention is that you reinstalled drivers and i'm assuming some other software.

Other things that I've recently put on are LAVA player, SoundBlaster Audio PCI, and MediaRing Talk because they were on the original Nero CD. Also Java Runtime 5.0 and some Yamaha XGstudio or something like that as a desperation move. Could any of these be the problem??