Try to copy a working DVD-R but it turns up as empty

[bacardi/avt]

I have a strange problem. During the time that I have had my different DVD-burners I have never before come across a WORKING burned DVD-R that I could not copy until now. Today I tried to make a copy of a friends disc but all my burning software told me it was an empty disc. So I tried it in my standalone player and it works perfectly.

I do nkow how to make a working copy (just copy all the files over to the computer and then burn a new compilation) but why can't the drive see that there is information on the disc whan I try to do a exact copy?

Is there some bit that the dvd-burner sets to tell other burners that the disc is full or how does it really work?

[Bodyslide]

I tried making a copy of a DVD+R on another PC once and the burner and DVD-Rom would, only see the DVD as a blank. I would use DVDdecrypter and read to iso and then burn the iso with DVDdecrypter.

[bacardi/avt]

Actually DVD Decrypter was the first program I tried since that is my prefered way of doing copies. I also tried Nero, Plextools and RecordNow....

[jimmalenko]

I've got a funny feeling that there's a possibility that this disc may have been burned using the UDF file system, which can possibly make it appear unreadable in a PC but playable on a standalone player.

Here's some info I found on Microsoft's site that might assist:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q321640&

[BetaMaster]

Well, correct me if I'm wrong and I probably am, but some programs can read UDF files. For example, I think the paid version of Isobuster can, although the freeware version can't.

[jimmalenko]

Well, correct me if I'm wrong and I probably am, but some programs can read UDF files. For example, I think the paid version of Isobuster can, although the freeware version can't.

Nah, I think you're right

I don't know a lot about it myself - I've just read about it and then when I did a google, that microsoft link came up and it sounds like the problem as described here.

[bacardi/avt]

I have checked the microsoft link and it seems that I have all the updates in my system to read this disc. I tried to open it with my plextor 716 and I only get errors all the time. Then I tried to open it with my Hitachi GD 7500 (hacked firmware x008) and this drive could read some of it but not all files which makes me belive that this is a "bad" burn even since it is work in my standalone player.

Since the DVD isn't that important to me I just do not copy it and stop wasting time on it.

Thanx for all the replies...