I am having a problem with my CD-RW drive. It will not read or even recognize 99% of discs (including the Windows CDs, various games, etc), but it will recognize blank writable CDs. When I attempt to burn files to blank CDs, it completes the "writing to CD" process but cannot finish "Performing final steps to make CD ready to use" and indicates that there has been an error.

This CD-RW drive's performance has been consistently poor for the past year -- it has had trouble reading Microsoft discs included with the system, and only read burned CDs reliably.

I have always used the operating system itself to burn CDs, and I have not installed any other CD burning software to my knowledge.

The only reason why I am bothering to ask instead of simply replacing the drive is because I need to reinstall Windows immediately, and this is obviously impeded by the lack of CD drive functionality.

Info:

Windows XP Home
NEC NR-7900A Drive