that's the problem.... thompson is pretty bad about reading media... try a different name brand cd-rw and put a bigger dummy file on it (like 500-600 megs)
keep trying and eventually it will read man. you might have to try 30-40 times with the same disc.
this is why i got an xbit with usb flashing when i found out i had a thompson. too much headache dealing with cd-r/w's. but my thompson did read slayers 2.5 on a hp cd-rw that came with my dvd burner on the first try and each time after when i booted to it
might wanna try that