[hohner]

Go to Control Panel, and look for an icon named Regional & Language Options, in there you will find a tab called Regional Options. Now just use the drop down menu to choose a different country. I am in Australia, and mine works so maybe choose that one. Again I'm not entirely sure this will work but I guess it's worth a shot.
If you have another cd/rom drive other than your cd/writer you should be able to use this one regardless whether hide-cdr media is selected or not.
Also, you might like to try using Clonyxxl. If you don't know already, this will scan the cd you are about to copy and recomends which settings to have when using Clonecd depending on what the protection is.