hi forumers - i'm a brand newbie to dvd burning etc. could you help?

All i want to do is make my dvd into a drag and drop disc that i can then read on my laptop dvd drive and take data from, watch mgeg files etc. i tried using roxio 7 media creator - the 'copy files to disc' part of the software. when i finished and put it in my laptop all i hear is a clunking sound and can't access the disk.

previously before dvd writers, cd'r data disks were dead easy with easy cd - you just used it like windows explorer and draged and dropped files and you could read it in any drive.

what am i doing wrong with the dvd? do i need to format it first or finish it off or something.

please help

Ian