Drag & drop no longer works on my windows XP professional SP3 desktop.
when I want to put a file on a disk I get the following error "Windows encountered a problem when trying to copy this file. What do you want Windows to do? retry? cancel?"
I've been getting this error for a couple of months now, I can see no reason for the error & it's driving me NUTS!
Thanks
noaxetogrind
Hi - Is this happening when you are trying to burn files to a disc (CD/DVD), or when trying to copy files from one disk (hard drive) to another?
Is this error happening with ALL files or just some?
Cheers... Jim
It's been eons since I've been on xp. My Bad...
Click on Start menu,properties,customize,then in advanced properties, check the box labeled
enable drag and drop.
Then click ok.
If that is as it should be, I would see if I can add the file or files directly from the burning program.
If you can, it makes me wonder if the aforementioned program has taken over.
Perhaps a reinstall of said program would be a remedy. Just a guess. Couldn't hurt.
If your not transferring files to a disc via a burning program,but from hard drive to hard drive, or partition,there is a registry addition,not approved by Microsoft, that I've used for years, enabling one to right click a file or folder and choose move to or copy to folder.
A Google search for this registry addition may get you what you are looking for as well/
Guys - A disk (with a 'K' on the end) refers to a hard drive. A disc (with a 'C' on the end) refers to CD/DVD. It confuses the issue no end when these terms are used in the wrong context.
I may have a solution for noaxetogrind but I'll need answers to my questions before I can be sure.
Cheers... Jim
What are the possible solutions? If his answer is X or Y?
It's been a long time since XP for me, even in a virtual machine.
Hi Macca - It depends entirely on the answers given. If noaxetogrind is talking about burning files to disc (CD/DVD) and only some files are affected, not all, I am thinking that long filenames may be the cause. I've come across this issue previously and shortening filenames which are too long can often fix it.
At the moment, there is nowhere near enough information leaving far too many possibilities... we need to narrow it down.
Cheers mate... Jim
Completely forgot about that one.
Thanks for the info.
I have subsequently edited my previous post to correct my error regarding disc vs disk.
No problem Macca, thanks for doing that... appreciated. 
Jim, and others,
Since I discovered this problem, it finally has gotten so bad recently that I cannot copy anything to a CD/DVD.
Most recently it was a set of files for my daughters computer that I downloaded ( drivers for a wifi card I installed in her computer) Another thing, the wizard that used to show up to do the actual transfer of files and burn them to the CD no longer opens!
Thanks,
noaxetogrind
Okay, then Macca was on the right track.
You say "CD/DVD" but XP didn't include any native DVD burning ability. So, what are we talking about here; the built-in XP CD burning wizard or a third party burning software you have installed??
Have you checked the status of your CD drive in Device Manager? Go to Device Manager, locate the entry for your CD drive; is there an error icon associated with it?
Cheers... Jim
The cd/dvd player writer is an optiarc DVD RW AD 7220S scsi cd rom device it came with the computer, not an upgrade. Device manager shows the drive as idle.
It's still a mystery!
Thanks,
noaxetogrind
maybe a little background would be helpful?
I first discovered the problem a couple of months ago when my wife and I were planning an RV trip.
previously I had always been able to take with us a cd-r with 2 excel files on it so my wife could keep the books as we went, However copying the 2 Excel files was one of the last thing I did before leaving, when the problem cropped up suddenly and we were only going for 2 weeks my wife could not get too far behind.
I tried when we got back to copy the files to a CD-R again, with no luck The wizard would sometimes come up & sometimes not, it sometimes had files to copy to the disk, that would be successful, other times the wizard would only have a utility to erase the disk ( no files to burn) as the 2 month time moved on it has gotten to be a rare occurrence for the wizard to show & it never has displayed any files to burn.
The error I gave in my first post about the problem comes from dragging & Dropping the file from the hard drive to the CD/DVD drive.
noaxetogrind
You are not answering the questions noaxetogrind.
We need to know what software you have been using to burn files to disc (CD/DVD)... is it just the built-in XP burner or is it burning software you have installed yourself?
And... In Device Manager, is there a yellow icon associated with the entry for the DVD/CD Rom Drive?
Update:
Okay, just read through your further explanation. Sounds like you have been using XP's built-in burning software.
Why not just install a 3rd party burning software, there are plenty around. Here is one of the best: http://cdburnerxp.se/en/home
No I don't think it has anything to do with long file names. The 2 Excel files have rather short names, the files for my daughters computer is called BL-LW04-A2/
Any way I have copied the 2 Excel files many times successfully, up until about the middle of last November.
Thank you,
noaxetogrind
Why not just install a 3rd party burning software, there are plenty around. Here is one of the best: http://cdburnerxp.se/en/home
That way, you will not be using the burning wizard built-in to XP at all, you can just use the installed software.
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