[I have posted this to the Hardware forum as well, since its theme straddles both]

I am using Windows 7 as the host operating system and have installed Linux Mint 9 Isadora(2.6.32-21-generic) as a 'guest' operating system, using VirtualBox (www.virtualbox.org). I do not think that there is anything wrong with the virtualbox installation, as using exactly the same parameters I have installed Vista as a guest operating system, and the devices mentioned below work fine. The permissions for using the CD devices in Linux have been allocated.

I have two DVD devices installed:

Pioneer DVD-RW DVR 218L ATA
[Samsung] CDDVDW SH-S232C ATA

When I insert a music CD into either of the drives, an error message appears: 'Unable to mount Audio Disc Drive/dev/sr0 does not contain audio files. The Computer-File Browser window displays a musical note superimposed on the CD image, and below it the notation 'Audio Disc'.

When I insert a data disc, the Computer-File Browser indicates that it is an Audio disk, in the same way as decribed immediately above. The CDROM File Browser window displays the folders included on the disc, and the read-me text can be opened. [I am trying to load up a series of discs from OSDisc.com which include Linux software.] When I open Package Manager/Settings/Repositories/Other Software/Add CD-ROM, as per the instructions in the read-me file, two windows appear: (1) Scanning cd-rom/waiting for disc, and, (2)please insert a disc in the drive. [The disk is alaready in the drive, of course.] When I reinsert the disc and select OK, an error message appears: Error scanning the CD- E: unable to stat [sic] the mount point/cd rom/-stat (2:No such file or directory)[the identical message is repeated] and then: E failed to mount the cd rom.

Although probably not relevant, I note that there is no problem playing audio files which have been uploaded to directories.

I have installed the Linux guest operating system on a separate partition on the host drive, and there also there is no recognition of the DVD drives. I am uncertain as to whether this is simply a driver prolblem because some Linux users I know state that they think that this is unlikely. At least in the VM situation, the disks are visible, albeit it is not possible to read from them.

I am entirely new to the use of Linux and I hope that this is not a common problem that has been mentioned already that I have failed to identify [I did look through all the pages of this forum]-if so, apologies. Any help is appreciated.