This thread smells of failure and linux.
Only because Linux was mentioned, does it also smell of fail.
As mentioned, check your burner's specs to see if it can read +rw or -rw discs, whatever you have. I can't find the specs easily, so it must be an older POS or brand-new.
Next, check to see you have the right drive selected. Nero always chooses my plextor cd-r when I install it, and I forget to select the other drive - has made me nuts before. Also make sure your drivers, if needed, are installed. An invisible drive can't be written to.
Third, make sure it has good power. Some usb devices require a 2nd usb plug or wall inverter for power, otherwise they'll get I/O errors up to wazoo.
Fourth, try Nero Micro. Get it from a torrent to try it out - it will do practically anything, it just has lots of settings you can mess with.
Fifth - try Linux. It's for people who are scared of pirating and don't have need for the other million specialty apps for PC that Linux doesn't have. I'll add "yet" since I know someone will say some code monkey is working on them in between his WoW adventures.