Why does Windows have a CD/DVD obsession?

[Rekrul]

I'm running Windows 98SE and the following is all too common;

I burn a CD or DVD and Nero reports errors during the verify phase. Since I've gotten false errors before, I want to make sure that the disc really is bad before burning another one. So I switch to my file manager and attempt to copy the files to my HD. Partway through, it encounters an error and rather than report this, it just keeps trying and trying and trying and trying and trying, etc, etc, etc. Normally, this would be a good thing, except that it's virtually impossible to get it to stop. I try to close the file manager and it won't respond. So I use the task manager and kill it. Now nothing should be accessing the drive, but Windows is still trying to read the disc. If I eject it, Windows will either complain, or just outright crash. If it complains, it says I can press ESC to abort. That's a lie, it does NOT abort, it crashes.

Basically once Windows 98 encounters an error on a CD/DVD, it's like a rabid pitbull, it won't let go of that disc no matter what you do. About the only thing I can do is hit the reset button, since Windows is most likely going to crash when I eject the disc anyway.

Is there any way around this?