Hi 21EKane,
Since your external drive can successfully read a music CD, it is at least being detected by the Surface. The issue may instead be related to the drive’s write capability or blank-disc compatibility.
Please check:
- Look at the drive or its specifications for CD-R/RW, DVD-RW, Writer, or Burner support.
- Confirm your blank discs are a format the drive supports, such as CD-R or CD-RW.
- If possible, try one blank disc from a different brand or batch to rule out incompatible or faulty media.
If the drive is read-only, it can play existing CDs but cannot burn blank ones. If you share the exact make/model of the external DVD drive and the type of blank CD, we can narrow this down further.
Hope this helps get you pointed in the right direction.