DVDDecrypter test mode crapped out my DL disk

[gonzalimator]

Crap! There goes $5.

I'm trying my first DL burn. I used pgcedit to prepare the ISO and now I'm using DVDDecrypter to burn it. Feeling cautious, I enabled test mode to see if it would work successfully. Well, stupid me I let it get to 70-something percent and decided to abort (it was running at 2.4X and I just wanted to get on with it) Really, it shouldn't make a difference if you abort a test, nothing should've been written to the disk anyway. Well, when I went to burn, Decrypter said that the disk was not empty! I popped it out and sure enough, there was a little ring of data at innermost part of the disk, as well as a similar sized ring at the outside edge. What the hell?!? Why did it write anything at all? What did I do wrong?

burner: MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-831S 1.31 (ATA)
media: Verbatim DVD+R DL

I realised afterwards that I was using an older version of Decrypter (stupid stupid..) something like version 3.1.?.?. I just put 3.5.40 on my machine. I hate to think that this was the reason it crapped out on me.

Any thoughts?

[VegasBud]

According to LightningUK!, the +R format of cd's and dvd's doesn't support the "test" feature. In version 3.1.5.0 of DvdDecrypter, he put up a messagebox to let the user know the "test" would be a real burn if they continued. It sounds like you had an earlier version.

The bad news is you wasted a (expensive) disk. Even worse news is that it won't be the last. On the other hand, the good news is you won't waste another disk in that exact way again.

By the way, LightningUK! did later find a way to do a test burn on +R media using selected Benq burners. As a rule though, test burn on +R = real burn.

[hech54]

Use IMGBurn instead?

[VegasBud]

Unfortunately, the problem is with the +R format. ImgBurn won't do it either.

[hech54]

Unfortunately, the problem is with the +R format. ImgBurn won't do it either.

According to LightningUK!, the +R format of cd's and dvd's doesn't support the "test" feature.

Does that go for CD+R's too?

[VegasBud]

Yes, it won't work on cd+r either.

[hech54]

Yes, it won't work on cd+r either.

[gonzalimator]

What a lousy way to find that out!

Thanks for the enlightenment.

[hech54]

I'm not the most patient guy in the world but I learned my lesson years ago to never abort anything...especially a Windows update that I thought was the wrong one for my computer...
I also would not abort something as trivial as a burn either.

[lordsmurf]

Use IMGBurn instead?

My thought too.