DVD-RW

[DUDIRENO]

Hey, I always see people talk about using DVD-RWs so I got a couple to work on some of my DVD projects. Yesterday was the first time I actually tried to erase one and it didn't work. The disk isn't recognizable in Toast. When I go to try and burn to it again I get an error message saying the disc is full. Anybody else have this trouble. After that I went to use a DVD-R and it gave me the same error message. It was a DVD-R that I know was blank. I did a repair permissions and it still didn't work. I restarted and the error message was gone. However, I didn't try my DVD-RW again.

[DUDIRENO]

Oops I should clarify. I erased the DVD-RW successfully it just isn't recongnized as blank now.

[Ladd]

Background:
Toast offers two types of erasure of DVD-RW disks: "quick erase" and "full erase".

Toast offers a message with Quick Erase noting that if you choose this method, only Toast will recognize the disk as being erased. If you wish to use the disk with some other burning application, Toast advises that you use Full Erase.

FWIW:
I have always used Quick Erase and haven't had any trouble with other applications recognizing that the disk is blank and could be written to. This data is limited in its usefulness, however, as the only other application I've ever used to burn is Apple's "Disk Copy" utility.

The second part of your message says that you get the same "cannot write to this disk" error when attempting to write to a known-good DVD-R disk. Something is definitely not right here ...

[Frobozz]

Please describe what DVD recorder you are using. There are some SuperDrives (particularly in some PowerBooks) that didn't support DVD-RW. Does Apple System Profiler say that your drive supports -RW?

[DUDIRENO]

I don't know how to give you information about my Superdrive. I went to System Profile and didn't see anything about the drive.

[Frobozz]

System Profiler info on a SuperDrive is found in the hardware>ATA section. You should see a line of text that reads like this:

Drive Type: CD-RW/DVD-ROM

That's my iBook's combo drive. A Superdrive will be different. If it says DVD-R and does not say DVD-RW then it probably has firmware that prevents writing to DVD-RW media.

[galactica]

did you try discribe?
often time you can just write right over the old info. That app seems to handle stubbord erased disks very welll actually.

[thoughton]

This may seem a stupid question, but are you sure it's your DVD-RW that is full, and not your HD?

When you insert a blank DVD-R and you have less than 4.3 gig of space on your HD the Finder will assume you're about to put stuff on it and give you a message about not having enough space to burn the disc (because when you try and eject it Finder will ask you if you want to burn it, but to do that Finder needs to make a 4.3gig image of whatever you drag-n-dropped to the empty disc prior to burning).

You can get around this by burning in Toast, but not inserting the blank disc until the very final prompt (when Toast says 'waiting for media to be inserted' or something like that). If you insert the blank before this prompt Finder 'sees' the blank disc and does its thing.

If you were only just under the 4.3gig free HD space limit, a reboot would look like it fixed this problem (but it would only be temporary) because it trashes invis temp files (which can get to be gigs in size).

[DUDIRENO]

Thoughton I think you nailed it. After I restarted I erased the DVD-RW in Toast and it worked. But After reading your post I realized that I had noticed after restart that I was down to 3.9 gigs and I emptied my trash. I did this before I tried to burn in toast again. I really think that is what it was. Thanks again guys!!

[g4cube]

With a HD that full isnt it time to update it ? :P

[DUDIRENO]

Just got a motorcycle. it will have to wait.

[zinkton]

I've noticed that my Pioneer 107 won't erase DVD-RWs correctly when I use Toast's Quick Erase function. I have to use the normal, full Erase for the disc to be properly erased. (If you try to use the disc later, it will say something like "can't read table of contents" or something like that.)

However, if you do end up bungling the DVD-RW, it can be salvaged. Just download cdrecord-ProDVD (the non-free version) and erase the disc by adding the "-force" flag. The cdrecord application will still complain that it can't read the table of contents, and whine with sense key errors, but it *will* attempt to erase the disc anyway and do it correctly.

From this point on, you can burn new data using Toast and resume erasing the disc using the normal Erase feature.

I know the discs sold at Target under the Sony brand (DVD-RW 1X, orange packaging) all have this problem with my Pioneer 107.

[deadsierra]

Just got a motorcycle. it will have to wait.

What kind? I wish I had a motorcycle.

[DUDIRENO]

Never saw you asked me about my motorcycle.

I got a dual sport Yamaha TW200

Its not the fastest bike. Only 6,000 miles!