Need to erase DVD-RW, burn stopped abnormally

[captain_tinker]

Hello, I have a question. I was using Sonic's MyDVD 4.04 the other day to burn some of my home videos to a DVD-RW to test before burning to a +R. I have a dual format burner, Optorite's DD0203 at firmware 2.16. The burn failed with a Head Select Fault after writing a small amount of data to the disc. I can see that it has indeed burned just a small stripe of data on the disc, however I cannot erase the disc anymore. I have tried several different ways, such as in Nero, in BHA's Recorder Gold, and even trying NicW's DVDInfoPro. None of these ways has worked. I think that the problem comes from having the burn ending before it finished the session. When I try to erase it, I get errors like Illegal disc, this is not a rewriteable disc, etc. Is there such a thing as a program that will erase a DVD-RW disc bit for bit, without caring if it has an unfinished session on it? I sure would like to make sure I don't make coasters of my RW's, those can be expensive... Not to mention frustrating to lose! Any ideas anyone?

[Roderz]

Head Select Fault

Never had that one!
Was it a porn movie you were burning :P

[penamty]

I don’t know if this will work but once I had a similar problem and the only way I could get Nero to erase the DVD, was by sort of fooling Nero into not attempting to read the disk first by inserting the disk a second or so before I click the quick erase option

[captain_tinker]

Well, I guess it is worth a try... I wonder if I still have that disc or if I have just junked it since... I'll check.

[edyohome]

Did anyone ever get a good fix for this problem? I have the same problem. Using Optorite DD0203 v2.23, Fujifilm DVD-RW, Windows ME. Windows ME doesn't recognize the disc at all. Nero 6.3.0.0 sez no disc or illegal disc. DVDInfoPro errors in trying to read the disc. If anyone has found a solution...I would certainly appreciate an answer. You can email me as well.

thx

[captain_tinker]

No, I never did get a fix for the problem. I ended up returning my Optorite after ranting and raving how it kept ruining all my DVD's, and finally ruined an -RW, so I got rid of it in favor of the Sony DWU14A. It has all the same specs as the optorite does except for the HD Burn, which I could never get to work anyway, and don't think I have made any coasters with it yet. Well, one, but it worked in my computer just fine, just not on my DVD player. It turned out was my fault, I had not set something correctly when burning it. Owell. I have burned over a Hundred discs so far with it. I also stick with the +R and +RW media most of the time. I have found that the Verbatim 4X +R's (which are recommended by Sony for this burner by the way) work VERY Well, and you can buy them in stacks from Sam's Club.
One other thing, and I hope that I don't make you mad by this, but get rid of Windows ME. Go with either Windows 2000 Pro or Windows XP pro. I have used the Sony on both OS's with great results. If you really want to stick with an older OS, go back to Windows 98 SE. ME was just a horrible mess. Seriously, it is worth it to go to 2K or XP. They are both decent OS's and fairly stable, but I don't think that ME is the problem with the DVD, it is the brand of the burner. Optorite was just never very good.

[divingbuddy]

I had the same problem with the Compusa generic 1X DVD-RW's. I get an illegal disk error. I was using DVD Xcopy Platinum when the error happened about 10 seconds into the burn. I have tried several different programs to get a read from the DVD-RW (Nero 6.0, NTI, DVD XCopy Platinum, DVD XMaker and Veritis), no luck. I had used the disk several times to make backups and erased just fine with Nero before. If anyone can recommend a program to read the disk and see what is exactly on the disk that might help in finding the answer. I was burning with a Pioneer AO4 on Windows 2000 Pro at 1X. I am still using other disks from the same bundle with no problems.

[tompika]

I've successfully erased some 'fawlty' DVD+RW's with DVD Decrypter.

Alcohol 120% can bypass illegal TOC too...

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=745787#745787

[edyohome]

Thanx to those that answered. Yes I too believe that the Optorite is a piece of crap machine...I've even told Optorite so when I tried to get them to help with this problem and they suggested the same crap that you can find on any FAQ page about how to burn DVDs. So I too am just beginning to come to the realization that I bought a dud and need to get another brand of burner. If I do ever hear anything on a fix, I'll be sure to return here and post.

thx again
EZ