By copying do you mean directly from one drive to the other?

Yeah, from DVD to CD drive.

Do the drives work creating an iso first then burning the copy (one drive for both processes)?
If the above works, does it work with both drives?

I don't think that either makes an image before burning.

Did the problem suddenly occur?

I don't really remember when I first noticed it.
I do remember recently copying to CD some pictures from Kodak Easy Share that I had downloaded from my camera with no problem. I had no reason to backup/archive those pictures to DVD b/c at aroung 500 megs, it would have basically been a waste of a DVD unless copied as a multisession. So, when I am trying to copy from 1 drive to another is when the problem occurs.

Was anything coincident with the problem starting?

No other hardware or software errors that I know of.

Which is typically the destination drive?

CD-R/RW


Have you tried better quality media?

AFAIK, Maxell or Memorex is about the best there is, so yeah, already tried that.

If just one drive is faulty and cannot read, would that explain the problem?

No problems reading from either drive, just can't burn.

Drives can just fail due to laser problems etc.

If there were problems with the laser, the drives would have trouble reading as well as writing, and the odds of that type problem occuring in both drives at once are, though possible, very slim.