Formatting Dvd-rw

[keyser_soze]

I have a dvd-rw disc that I'm using to test my encoded dvd movies on b4 burning to dvd-r, there is a film on the disc but when I try to write anything to the disc with windows I get disc not inserted, when I right click the properties it says the file system on the disc as RAW do I need to format it in some way?

[tesco]

yes, go into nero burning rom and click recorder>erase rewritabledisc...i tihnk that's what u gotta do..

[keyser_soze]

I've done that m8, I can get to burn stuff on it with nero but it never passes the verification process, aswell as that once erased with nero I can't write to it from windows, it adds the files to be written then when I click to write them it says no valid cd inserted :angry: any other ideas?

[tesco]

cd could be corrupt, they do get corrupt very easily...

[keyser_soze]

Hmm I hope not I've just got it last week :( I wonder if it makes a difference that I might have finalised the disc with nero when trying out a dvd but then again it should'nt really make a difference if the disc is erased. weird how nero will burn to it though and not windows.

[tesco]

do u have any more dvd-rw's to test with? or just burn a dvd-r they arent that expensive and im sure you have bought more than one...

[keyser_soze]

Yeah I made the mistake of buying some expensive 1's and there dvd+rw's although I'm not sure about the difference, I was getting a bit sick making coasters :D Whats the best way to test encoded files b4 burning to dvd? because sometimes when I burn them to dvd-rw they come out crap but then I burn the same thing on a fresh disc there ok, whats the best way to test if there ok before u burn them?

[tesco]

Originally posted by keyser_soze@12 June 2004 - 19:20
Yeah I made the mistake of buying some expensive 1's and there dvd+rw's although I'm not sure about the difference, I was getting a bit sick making coasters :D Whats the best way to test encoded files b4 burning to dvd? because sometimes when I burn them to dvd-rw they come out crap but then I burn the same thing on a fresh disc there ok, whats the best way to test if there ok before u burn them?
i guess you could choose image recorder in nero instead of your dvd drive, burn the iso, mount it with alcohol 120, then test it...if it works burn it...

[keyser_soze]

Ok I'll try that, can I not mount the disc with nero I don't have alcohol installed anymore? So if it runs ok and plays fro the image drive can I safely assume that it will work when played on my dvd player?

[Chewie]

You need to format the disc for packet writing if you want to be able to drag & drop files to it. Erasing the disc will not format it, it'll erase it.
If you burn an image to it, you won't be able to make changes to it. You'd have to erase it and burn again or format it.

[tesco]

Originally posted by Chewie UK@12 June 2004 - 20:04
You need to format the disc for packet writing if you want to be able to drag & drop files to it. Erasing the disc will not format it, it'll erase it.
If you burn an image to it, you won't be able to make changes to it. You'd have to erase it and burn again or format it.
but to burn a dvd, he is just writing to it as data, so he shoudln't even be able to use packet writing software at all...

but i guess that is worth a try still...

[peat moss]

I'v made the same mistake giving dvd-rw to friends you have to Format a rw first . Its like a floppy disk because you can write, drop and drag or rewrite to it.

[keyser_soze]

so he shoudln't even be able to use packet writing software at all...
Not even windows xp built in packet writing? Does this mean I should disable recording on the drive?

I'v made the same mistake giving dvd-rw to friends you have to Format a rw first How do I go about formatting it when the disc does'nt show up on my computer?

[Amarjit]

After finalising a disk, it is rendered incapable of being formatted.

[chinook_apache]

Originally posted by Amarjit@16 June 2004 - 16:14
After finalising a disk, it is rendered incapable of being formatted.
he said its dvd-rw, this means its re writable meaning it can be formatted...
correct me if im wrong ;)

[keyser_soze]

Yeah its a dvd-rw, when I was burning the sample dvd files the option not to finalise the disc was greyed out so I had to do it to test my authored dvd, My current situation is that when the disc is inserted it shows up as a dvd-rw in the drive, it also says that it has 0 bytes free and 0 bytes used so I find it weird that a just erased disc from nero is'nt recognised by windows afterwards.

I know its only a disc but I'm trying to sort it before wrecking anymore discs :)

[peat moss]

Originally posted by chinook_apache+16 June 2004 - 09:01--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (chinook_apache @ 16 June 2004 - 09:01)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Amarjit@16 June 2004 - 16:14
After finalising a disk, it is rendered incapable of being formatted.
he said its dvd-rw, this means its re writable meaning it can be formatted...
correct me if im wrong ;) [/b][/quote]
nope your right thats why there called DVD-RW. :lol:

[SingaBoiy]

Originally posted by peat moss+16 June 2004 - 18:37--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (peat moss @ 16 June 2004 - 18:37)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
Originally posted by chinook_apache@16 June 2004 - 09:01
<!--QuoteBegin-Amarjit@16 June 2004 - 16:14
After finalising a disk, it is rendered incapable of being formatted.
he said its dvd-rw, this means its re writable meaning it can be formatted...
correct me if im wrong ;)
nope your right thats why there called DVD-RW. :lol: [/b][/quote]
Yep you can always format it.

Should there really be a 2 page guide on how to format a disc?

[lynx]

Originally posted by keyser_soze@16 June 2004 - 23:08
Yeah its a dvd-rw, when I was burning the sample dvd files the option not to finalise the disc was greyed out so I had to do it to test my authored dvd, My current situation is that when the disc is inserted it shows up as a dvd-rw in the drive, it also says that it has 0 bytes free and 0 bytes used so I find it weird that a just erased disc from nero is&#39;nt recognised by windows afterwards.

I know its only a disc but I&#39;m trying to sort it before wrecking anymore discs :)
I had exactly the same problem.

Record a disk - appears ok.
Erase the disk - appears to be ok.
Try to record the disk - 0 bytes free, disk useless. Lost 3 disks.

I&#39;m pretty sure the problem wasn&#39;t Nero as it did the same thing if I erased with Alcohol, and in any case they would have heard about it pretty darn quick if it was a Nero problem.

I suspect it is an incompatibility between your recorder and your disks.

At the time I was using a Sony :angry: DRU-500A with firmware 2.0f. I have since upgraded to firmware 2.1a and the problem appears to have been corrected, same brand now erases ok.

Note, appears ok after first record, but to date 2 of 4 disks used (excluding the 3 lost) have had read errors on them and I haven&#39;t got round to checking the other 2 yet. I suspect it was part of the same problem.

[keyser_soze]

Should there really be a 2 page guide on how to format a disc?
I suppose if there is&#39;nt an answer to the prob yet then it might be necessary, unless your about to put it in? are you?

Thanks lynx for your input I&#39;ve updated my firmware about 6 week ago when I first installed the rewriter but will check to see if there are anymore. You sound like you were having the same problem, the weird thing is that if I burn the disc with nero it plays but shows empty disc in my pc :angry: during this thread a few ppl have said format a dvd-rw but no1 has said how, is just erasing the disc with nero enough to format it? I&#39;m starting to wonder if once the disc has been used by windows(roxio) packet writing it can&#39;t go back to being a dvd-rw although this is probably wrong, even if this was happening and it was stuck in p/writing format then I should be able to use it with windows but it does&#39;nt.

[tesco]

Originally posted by keyser_soze@17 June 2004 - 15:19

Should there really be a 2 page guide on how to format a disc?
I suppose if there is&#39;nt an answer to the prob yet then it might be necessary, unless your about to put it in? are you?

Thanks lynx for your input I&#39;ve updated my firmware about 6 week ago when I first installed the rewriter but will check to see if there are anymore. You sound like you were having the same problem, the weird thing is that if I burn the disc with nero it plays but shows empty disc in my pc :angry: during this thread a few ppl have said format a dvd-rw but no1 has said how, is just erasing the disc with nero enough to format it? I&#39;m starting to wonder if once the disc has been used by windows(roxio) packet writing it can&#39;t go back to being a dvd-rw although this is probably wrong, even if this was happening and it was stuck in p/writing format then I should be able to use it with windows but it does&#39;nt.
o guess since this thread is kinda going nowhere, noone knows how to fix this, you should try using INCD and format it to nero&#39;s packet writing format, then try writing to teh disc like that. It lets u delete files, add files, cut, paste, etc. as if it were a floppy or hard disk, but u can&#39;t burn to it in nero while it is in this format...

[keyser_soze]

Ok thanks for the suggestion, I think it might be turning into a going nowhere post, I&#39;m also a member of another board who solely deals with editing,encoding and authoring video because I do a lot of stuff with my camcorder, When I posted in there about a problem with bad playback on dvd&#39;s they were dead against having incd installed which is sort of why this problem came about in the first place :) I just thought I&#39;d checkout the hardware ppl in here because the other board does&#39;nt really get into the hardware side of things that much. Maybe having the disc in dvd format then formatting it with incd then back to windows packet writing format has corrupted the disc like mentioned earlier or windows does&#39;nt like incd formatted discs after its been uninstalled and did something to the disc that could&#39;nt be turned back, looks like I&#39;ll never know. :)

The answers out there somewhere :D

[lynx]

If you get to the stage where the disk is showing 0 bytes used, 0 bytes free in your recording software (actually, latest version of Nero was showing ???? bytes free) your disk is stuffed, erasing can&#39;t restore the disk because the capacity info has been screwed.

Packet writing format shouldn&#39;t prevent you from erasing the cd/dvd in any case, when it comes down to disk basics, the format information is still just data recorded on the media.

[keyser_soze]

Cheers it looks like getting a new dvd-rw 2morrow and seeing what happens from there, I&#39;ll look more into the formatting of discs aswell as I still can&#39;t get my head round the different formats and how different software formats the disc different ways :angry: :D

If it does my new disc expect me back....

Thanks for the help all. :)

[keyser_soze]

I&#39;ve came to conclusion that the dvd-rw is fooked, but...
If you get to the stage where the disk is showing 0 bytes used, 0 bytes free in your recording software (actually, latest version of Nero was showing ???? bytes free) your disk is stuffed, erasing can&#39;t restore the disk because the capacity info has been screwed.
when a disc has been erased by nero it always shows this, I found this out when I inserted some cd-rw&#39;s that had been erased by nero and gave same properties but they worked fine when used to burn new files with nero burning rom. I&#39;ve bought a new dvd-rw today and after a bit of encoding tonight I&#39;ll give it a try and let u know what happens but I&#39;m starting to think that formatting the disc in differebt formats and burning films to the disc fooked it, plus I don&#39;t think that the disc like incd for some reason, I checked my burners compatibility on nero&#39;s site and did&#39;nt find it :helpsmile: but I&#39;m gonna carry on with it as it seems to work for everything else so far, nero 5 came bundled with it but I don&#39;t wanna start going backwards. ;)