“Burn Process Failed” [Error 4450]
Either of these messages can be quite disheartening. “Burn Process Failed” showing up when using Nero Burning ROM, or “Error 4450″ when burning a CD through iTunes. I’m willing to bet that if you’ve found this site through a search engine, you’ve probably got a stack of about 20 or so useless, ruined blank CD-Rs or DVD-Rs; more commonly known as coasters. Basically, from what I’ve been able to deduce, the cause of this problem is a bad DVD-R/CD-RW drive. None of the solutions offered on the web, by anyone, seem to have remedied the situation.
Every once-in-a-while a disc would burn successfully. But these came fewer and more far between. What I finally ended up doing was going out and buying a new disc burner. And now, the problem is gone.
This post gets a huge amount of hits every single day. This problem must be pretty rampant. Too bad no one on any official sites will give any additional information as to what the cause of this is.
So, that’s all I’ve got. If you have any additional info, email me at godkillzyou@gmail.com.
Read a book.
Update As Of 6/7/2009
I’ve written an open letter to Apple, Inc. about this problem. I wonder if it will have any effect?
I should also mention that even after having purchased a new CD burner, I still get this error. Problem not fixed.
Same thing here. I hate that Error 4450. I have tried all sorts of ways to make successful audio CDs, and have been unsuccessful. I have changed the writing speed from Maximum Possibel to 20x or 24x, I have changed the brand of CD-Rs I have bought, & have tried burning the music by using a different media such as Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, Rhapsody, etc. I had even reformated my main-driver but I still get the same error message when I attempt to burn an audio CD. Now I am definitely saving up for an external CD-DVD rewritable drive.
Just curious, but do all CD-DVD rewritable drives eventually wear out over time?
had the same prob, so I tried just playin it in the car and it works no probs….. ye hah!!!!!!!
For the most part, yes they do. It depends on how much you use the drive. If you’re constantly burning CDs and DVDs, it will, obviously, burn out quicker. This could have something to do with the heat generated inside the drive, damaging the electronics inside. Not 100% sure on that though.
I am getting the ‘burn process failed’ sign, but I can still burn successfully on my ‘windows’ media center site. Does that still mean my burner is dead or dying? Should I say to heck with itunes and use windows instead? It is not as convenient as just using itunes alone.
Thanx!
that can’t be it cause just got a new computer and still getting error 4450! how about a change of cd brand?
Well, just because you’ve gotten a new computer does not logically mean that there’s nothing wrong with the drive. There could, possibly, be something wrong with it.
What I’d recommend is to, if you know someone else who’s got a drive that works, is hook it up to your computer and see if it works. If it does, than your drive is broken.
i’ve been through an external 4x cdrw, internal 40x cdrw, 8x dvdrw, and now using a SATA 20x dvdrw.
the 4x would normally burn at only 2x using usb1.0 only! yikes ($530 for that one) the 40x internal still works, (paid $60) burned over 1000 cds on it and it only started to stall out on me for a while until i upgraded the firmware. The 8x dvdrw worked fine ($120), however the trouble of converting video and media to be usable on dvd-r or +r was not worth the investment of having to try and try again and again so i gave that one away. still works. now i have a SATA 20x dvdrw and it burns on every type of media fast and reliable ($45), no fail burns but big problem, not all SATA connections “see” the drive but that’s ok now that i’m aware of the BIOS settings. EVERY type of media has problems, but if you find a good combination know that it will only last for a while, until something changes in software, or physical hardware or drivers or spyware or all that junk. The distance between hard drive to cd-r/dvd-r/+r is a LOOONG one at times. And i have 100’s and 100’s of failed burn coasters, i’ve used them as frisbies in a cdr war with my crazy jackass friends :)
I just started to have the problem while trying 8gig discs for the first time. I read many forums, what I got from them was that Nero is the cause. I have an LG GSA-H22L burner and I tried Fujifilm discs. I am going to try uninstalling Nero and trying another burn program. If that doesn’t work, I will get Verbatim discs and try that. I don’t think it is my burner, it burns everything else (cds, and 4 gig dvds) just fine. I will post back.
I’m getting the 4450 error message. Read on the itunes discussion forum to run an optical lense cleaner through it. Didn’t work. I made another coaster. My burner will burn CD’s using Burn4Free I got off CNET. But of course it won’t burn anything I bought from I tunes. Pretty frustrating.
Pretty looking forward to Crane’s reply.
I’ve been trying to burn mp3 cds for a week now and I changed software from Nero to iTunes, changed CD-R brands from Fujifilm to Verbatim, uninstalled and reinstalled the burning softwares: nothing worked so far, I can’t get rid of this error (whatever it is called) And the more frustrating is that I’m still able to burn a classic audio-CD; I’m lost.
I would just like to say thank you to all who answered this topic, i have been burning discs no problem, then all of a sudden i get error 4450! Frustrated? You could say, but finding out that it is not just me is reassuring. Will go and buy a new drive tomorrow.
Again thank you
If your DVD/CD burner is only a couple of years old I would buy a laser head cleaner and use it straight away and then after every two burns or so. It only costs around $7 and its a worthwhile investment. If cleaning doesn’t fix your problem then give Nero a try. If that doesn’t work either, you probably need a new burner.
I reduced the write speed and that fixed the problem for me.
Having to reduce the write speed could be a sign that the quality of the drive is deteriorating. It can’t perform as fast as it once did. Just a thought.
I’m so pissed right now I have about 20 “coasters” laying all around me and I’m about to start breaking them and throwing them across the room. I think that this is a scam on Apple’s part so u can pay 2 talk 2 the jackasses because phone support is not part of the $200 $#@&%^@ ipod!
yeah… actually try the CD. they all work, even when the error happens. you have probably wasted alot of good CDs oops
I get the error (4450) when I try to burn a playlist with Itunes free songs in it. Otherwise, I can burn any other type of play list. May free is not really free.
This 4450 error didn’t happen to me until I downloaded songs from ITunes and then tried to burn them through ITunes – is this the way others have encountered the problem as well – at present my computer will not write to a blank CD-R – never had this problem before…
Bill
Follow up – Figuring it was some kind of a registry problem, I re-installed my computer device drivers – problem solved – BUT I won’t be burning CDs from ITunes again!!!
Bill
Ok folks heres my two cents on the topic. I have windows vista and just recently my two year old disc drive died, I had it replaced under warranty and just got it back friday. My first attempt at burning was met with ERROR 4550. Every subsequent burn was met with the same error. I changed the burn speed in itunes from maximun to 24x and TA-DAH no more problems. Hope this helps. jan 18 2009
I have about 10 coasters sitting around, which isnt bad compared to some others. I came to this site and read all the posts. Bk’s post was the one that did the trick for me. I changed it from Maximum to 24x and “TA-DAH” the disc burns fine. The only disadvantage is waiting an extra 7-10 mins depending on your computer and drive.
Hope this post helps.
i’m having a real hard time believing that it’s the cd/rw drive when so many people seem to be having the same sort of problem. i had this same problem with my old dell computer and then i recently bought a new system and was able to burn a complete cd from itunes. a few days later i tried another one and it started again with error 4450. i also tried changing the speed from maximum to 24x and it’s the same problem. i’ve also tried playing the cd after it’s stopped and the selections that were written played ok but anything on the playlist that didn’t get written weren’t there. not quite sure what’s going on but i’m going to take it in and have it checked. thanks for all the input.
I got this error and I solved it by the following, you may want to give this a try if you get the Error 4550…
1. Change the Burn Speed to 12X
2. Change the gap between songs from 2 seconds to none
After doing these two changes I now burn without problems. Maybe a little slower, but at least it works!
dave permalink
I got this error and I solved it by the following, you may want to give this a try if you get the Error 4550…
1. Change the Burn Speed to 12X
2. Change the gap between songs from 2 seconds to none
After doing these two changes I now burn without problems. Maybe a little slower, but at least it works!
didn’t work for me…
Worked for me!
Didn’t work for me :(
Thanks for the tip! Worked like a charm!
This only happens to me on songs I have actually bought from itunes. Any ideas??
This error showed up and continued burning. But, the 1st 6 songs are all the same and the rest didn’t work. Then i tried again and it didn’t finalize.
Thanks for such an informative post….keep posting more…excellent
I had this problem several times. I followed these instructions and burned a CD, but it only had 5 out of the 17 songs I had in my playlist.
I was about to disconnect, but I decided to give it one last shot. This time, I disconnected before burning it… and it worked. The whole playlist.
The Cd will work up to a certain point. After it reaches, say track 14 or 18 it wont work any more.
it also happened to me. and till now nothing worked for me.
This is so frustrating, I can’t see if your getting that many hits to the site that everyones burner is going down. I did download bittorrent a day or two before this happened anyone else download something similar before getting this error. It also was after I finished a spindle and started on a new spindle of the same brand. Still looking for a fix tho
I’m not sure I fully understand what this comment means…
After a couple of years of hassle-free burning, Error 4450 began to crop up more and more frequently on my Dell 4500. I tried a new CD-DVD/RW drive but it did not solve the problem. The error is not unique to iTunes. If a disc burn fails, in my experience it is NOT true that the disc is completely playable, as some posters have said.
Neither Dell nor Apple has anything to say, other than this is a “known problem.” (In which case shouldn’t there be a solution by now?) My only hope is that it’s my brand of blank CDs, but looking at all these posts I’m not optimistic.
This is an important adendum to your update!!
You said the CD DOES work after the error pops up. Unfortunately, this is true, but to an extent. Your CD did stop before it was finished, and whether it was the last 10 seconds of the last song you’re missing, or the last 5 songs, the CD isn’t complete. :(
Hey guys, before you buy new drives, i read on a website that this error may be part of some registry problem, try downloading the regcure trial and run the scan then click “fix errors”. it worked really well for me! And it made my computer faster! hope that helped!
GOOD LUCK
Nix,
Coincidentally enough, I actually have the full version of RegCure. I have it scan my computer on a regular basis. So, at least in my situation, it’s not a registry error. Or, at least not a registry error that RegCure is catching.
I’m sure this will start a flame war, but you could switch to a Mac and avoid registry errors. Of course optical drives in Macs will fail eventually too. If you replace your optical drive, of course you may need to change something for the computer to use different driver for a different model, perhaps even a firmware difference. Just a note backing up what others have mentioned, stick with quality brands like Verbatim.
Hi. I’ve had this atrocious “Error 4450″ glitch too!
Soooooo frustrating, BUT, a tech guy from my church just solved it!!! Well, at least for me!
He had me go to the “Advanced” tab at the top of your iTunes playlist; click on it, when it opens down, go to
“create MP3 version” of the song you have highlighted.
click on it; it will convert the song you’re trying to burn from an AAC format to MP3; IMMEDIATELY, my iTunes’ burner started to work quickly and correctly!
Hope this helps most of you!
God bless,
“Guerty”
I don’t have really any AAC format music in my library. Pretty much all MP3. So this method wouldn’t work for me.
I bought a laptop monday, and burned a disk using itunes. the next day, i got the same error, made 20 coasters. took it to best buy and geek squad, and tried jus about everything. i’m just having my computer replaced. hopefully i wont have a similar problem.
There’s got to be some commonality between everyone receiving this error and the software/hardware they’re using. Some type of conflict between iTunes/Nero and the other software/hardware on their computer.
Make sure when using iTunes, you select Help/Provide iTunes Feedback and submit an error report. Even if you’ve done it before. Or you can click this link to submit an error report.
I rarely burn CD’s. This is probably the 3rd time in the 2 years I’ve had my PC that I’ve tried. Have burned from Itunes before but this time get the 4550 error message. Have 3 coasters so far, LOL. I have no other problems playing CDs and have never had a problem burning the few times I’ve tried it. So, I’m assuming it’s an itunes problem that may be due to updating to version 8. Anyone think that has something to do with it?
After months of failed burns, the solution for me has been to turn off my modem, close all programs except iTunes, disable my virus scan software, and turn off background applications (the ones with startup icons in the TaskBar). Since doing this I’ve had a half dozen or so successful burns and no fails, using my original CD-ROM and the same batch of CDs that was not burning previously. So for me it wasn’t a hardware problem but something in the background interfering with the burn. I haven’t determined whether it was the modem alone, one of the other things I listed alone, some combination of those things, or everything together. I’m just happy to have found a solution.
try ‘unchecking’ the ‘text’ box. I just discovered my disc burner literally burned out…..not even showing up on my ‘my computer’, and it smells hot….so, I guess the CD burner being ‘done’ is indeed the answer!
I’m having the same problem right now. It usually cancels the burn process about 5 songs in or halfway through an album.
I’ve purchased one 100 spindle of blank discs by Memorex and one 30 spindle of the same brand. The 100 spindle cds were gettin this error so i tried the 30 spindle which didn’t have any errors. I went back to the 100 spindle and had the problem again.
I’ve tried these discs on two different computers…Same problem. I’ve tried them on different software (Itunes and Windows Media)… Same problem.
I’ve also rebooted my computer back to its original settings… It didn’t help.
I’ve lowered the record speed and changed the gap setting to none.
Thinking it was a defective spindle, i bought another 100 spindle. This one had the same problem. So I decided to try a different brand and bought a 100 spindle of Sony… Again, same problem.
Today, I picked up a 50 spindle of Memorex which burned the entire album this time but at the beginning of each song there was a “pop” sound.
We’ve contacted memorex but they want to know exactly how many discs had errors so they can “refund them” and now i’m wondering if they’re only gonna replace the errored disc and not the whole spindle?
I’ve returned so many of these spindles and have been stuck with two of the older ones that have no wrappings/receipts…. Any advice and help to fix this would be appreciated.
Wow! I’ve also just recently started getting these 4450 error messages when I try to burn discs. Very frustrating!!
FWIW, I’ve been using HP CD-R 52x 700 MB/80 Min with a lot of success until last night. Now I’ve got five “coasters” since none of them burned without getting the dreaded error message. I did a restart of the computer to see if that helped but nada.
Thanks for all the advice in the earlier posts. Will try slowing things down and see if that avoids another coaster.
my computer wont burn cd’s at all no more..ive tried itunes,windows media and windows media center..help plz
if u could help me e-mail me at dcider323@yahoo.com or on myspace.com/valentines15
I had this problem with a couple of CDs. I switched to a different brand of CD and haven’t had the problem since (using the exact same playlist and without uninstalling/reinstalling iTunes.)
yeehaw itunes have fixed th problem at long last , i downloaded 9.1 it is for all problems with itunes and hey presto after messing up 30 cds it has worked
spoke too soon got 3 play lists out then……. aaaagh
A combination of running regcure, decreasing the speed of the burn, and updating itunes got me at least one burn after failing several times before. I hate technology sometimes…
I tried theis a few times and made a couple coasters. then i slowed the speed to 24x and deleted the first song on my burn list. worked fine. may have been a corrupted file……