Of Swords and Parasols

I think I've mentioned this before, but for whatever reason, my disc drive won't read anything that isn't already programmed as computer files.  It won't read blank discs(so I can format them to save files-like pics-on to get them off my harddrive) and it won't read DVDs.

Does anyone know if this may just be a default setting that I can change, or know how I(in my EXTREMELY limited computer knowledge) could change this?

help would be much appreciated.