When is a disc definitely a 'coaster'?

[terrypin]

In all the reading I've done so far, I've still not seen a definition of this much-used term, 'coaster'. Is it in fact just a subjective matter of opinion as to whether a disc is no longer usable for its intended purpose? If so, is there a broad consensus on when that is? I hate throwing stuff away if there's some chance of repairing it.

Or if it's not just down to peronal opinion, is there some acid test that can be applied? For example, I just used the neat program DVD Identifier on a couple of my Verbatim DVD-RW discs, and got:
[07:52:38] ERROR : Unable To Initialize Disc In Time : Not ready - Logical unit not ready [02/04/01]
I've emailed the author to see if that '[02/04/01]' tells me anything I could understand, but I'm not hopeful. Yet, if I just bin it, I may learn later that it was only a matter of doing such and such to recover it to full working order.

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Terry, West Sussex, UK

[guns1inger]

Any +R or -R disc that does not burn correctly; incomplete burn, wrong format, encoding problems with video or audio - basically any disc that is no longer useable for it's intended purpose.

As for your RW's - try formatting in another application. If that doesn't work, try them in a different machine. Just make sure you expend 10 times the cost of a replacement disc ensuring that yours are definately of no use.

[terrypin]

Thanks. So no solid definition in your view? For example, I assume that if a disc didn't play after your first attempt to burn it, you wouldn't dump it, even though it "does not burn correctly" ?

Re your last point, yep - I knew I was inviting that! But I also hate unsolved puzzles...

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

[natty]

well when you consider cost of a dvd-r is it worth all the trouble god they are cheap enough, you remind me of my tight mate dont want to throw anything away

[whitejremiah]

personally, if i find it noticeably off (audio synch, doesnt boot properly...in the case of a pc game or something like that) or any other flaw....if it's a music cd and the audio skips..i will toss it...blank discs, both of the cdr and dvdr flavor are relatively cheap and not worth the time and effort of recovery anyhow....pretty much, if it doesnt work byte for byte as it did on the harddrive, i will ditch it and write it off as a coaster.....

[guns1inger]

So no solid definition in your view?

basically any disc that is no longer useable for it's intended purpose

How solid do you want ? I check every DVD I burn using DVD Info Pro's read test. If it shows an error I will check it again. If it happens on the second pass, the disc gets binned (actually, the disc gets hung under my pergola to scare off the birds).

If you were hoping for a simple application that would look at your disc and flasher COASTER on the screen in big colourful letters, you are out of luck.

[HatchetMan]

If the DVD does not play perfectly fine in my player then it is a coaster. How solid of an answer is that?