How do you clear CD-RWs?

[Canadian_Chocobo]

Or do you just write over them and not clear them?

[gll99]

It's called erase.

Nero has an option in the menu under recorder/erase cdrw.

You can choose quick or full erase.

In most cases quick erase is fine and takes less than 1 minute, full may take 20 minutes but is overkill unless you really want to make sure that the file data can't be recovered by anyone else.

[SVCDummy]

If you are only writing data and text files to the CDRW you can use the quick erase feature. If you are writing videos to the CDRW you will need to do a full erase in order to avoid artifacts in the picture and sometimes even player failure.

This is even MORE important if you are using DVD+/-RW media.

[TBoneit]

I just let Nero do its quick erase thing on the fly when burning to a used DVD RW and have never seen problems because of it....

Are you saying that you have seen these problems, I ask since writing ot the disk should overwrite what was on it anyway. Quick format even on floppies just rewrites the Directory and the process of writing data replaces what was there.

I've only used a +RW for video but have reused -RW for data quick erasing all the time and no problems.

Inquiring minds want to know
Cheers
Roger

[gll99]

SVCDummy

If you are writing videos to the CDRW you will need to do a full erase

Canadian_Chocobo:

I've burned many tests and full movies after a quick erase and never had any artifact problems but I can't comment on the DVDR/RW + or - since I don't own one yet. I guess that if you have the time a bit of extra precaution never hurts.

I have had a few that would not accept a quick erase no matter which software I tried or whether I re-inserted them or not. This has been a rare problem but those did accept a full erase.

My final backup burns are usually to cdr.

[TBoneit]

The thing I have against a Full Erase vs Quick Erase is I suspect it shortens the life of the drive.....

It seems logical to me that as the laser is used it gets weaker over time and that at some point the power calibration process will be unable to ramp up the power level enough to burn properly. Therfor Full erase should reduce the useful life of the drive.

I could be wrong, it is only a theory of mine.

Cheers
Roger