DVD-RAM doesn't behave like DVD-RAM

[nospam2_ger]

Hi everybody,

I just bought an LG 4020b DVD Recorder which is working very nicely. But there's one big annoyance that nearly drives me crazy. Yesterday I used the windows explorer to copy 2,3 Gbytes of data to the DVD-RAM that came with the recorder. Today, I tried to add some new data (again with the explorer) but it just won't work. The disc seems write protected. I already checked the write-protect setting with the wptool. It is not enabled. Strange thing is, whenever I put the DVD-Ram in the drive, the Explorer shows a DVD-ROM icon on my desktop. Yesterday it was a DVD-RAM icon. What am I doing wrong. I already updated the drivers and double-checked every possible setting

Cheers,
Marcus

[crazeplaya]

Good question, have you tried any other DVD-RAM disc to see if that particular disc is somehow faulty

[nospam2_ger]

Unfortunately, I don't have any other RAM discs. But I already copied all the stuff back on my hdd. I didn't get any error messages.

[nospam2_ger]

Hmmm..... I just tried to format the disc. But the tools says "The disc is write protected". But wptool says that the write protection is NOT enabled.
Now what....

[handyguy]

maybe your computer dvd writer doesn't read DVD-RAM?

[nospam2_ger]

No. The LG 4020B does support DVD-RAM. How else could I have written data on it. It was actually THE feature that helped me make my buying decision.

[dcsos]

What OS are you using?

Win XP and 2000 should not give a problem
but special drivers are needed in 98 and Millenium

I had machanical problem with one DVD RAM..If its a type 2
remove it from the cartridge and see If you can write to it NAKED

also there are 2 sizes 5.2gig per side and 2.6 gig per side..Maybe they included the smaller size disc with the drive and It 'll only hold what you put on it after a format

[nospam2_ger]

I'm using WinXP Pro. The drive can only read/write "naked" DVD-RAMs (without cardridge). Recording on DVD-R and DVD-RW works perfectly - only DVD-RAMs cause the problems. Could it be possible that some drivers from other recording software interfere with the drive? (I'm using Nero 6.0.0.11 and Alcohol 120%).

[Greenspock]

I haven't had trouble with my 4040B (in the same family) but I have Easy CD Creator 6.x, Nero 5.5.(something), and for a period of time the -RAM 'driver' that came with the burner. It maybe that one of those things has added support. Also, when you wrote to the -RAM did it ask you to format it first?

[nospam2_ger]

Yes, I formatted it using UDF 1.5.

[Greenspock]

Wow this is a stumper. Not having run into this problem myself, the only thing that I can suggest is to try another means/app for writing the disk. But one thought does come to me though... does the wptool have a patch or upgrade somewhere? If not, try reinstalling it or just removing it completely. Best of luck.

[PhilipL]

Withdrawn

[royeiror]

Hi, it might just help, something weird happens to my drive while the virtual drive from alcohol 120% is on, i disabled it and it started working again, plus make sure the dla function is off if you plan on using dvd burning software, or turn it on if you are going to keep using explorer.
Might work, hope it does

[maskofdoom]

I have exactly the same problem as you with my LG 4040b. When I first installed the driver, I was able to copy files on to the DVD-RAM disk (that came bundled with the drive, I might add).

However, when I ejected the disk, put it back in and tried to copy files onto it, Windows Explorer gave me a write protect error, but the Write Protect is definitely off for the disk!!

So I dunno. I'm not using Alcohol, but I do have Nero 6 installed and the latest DVD-RAM driver (bundled with the drive) installed.

Could there be some conflict between software on our machines?

[lgmayka]

I had this problem until I uninstalled Easy CD Creator 5.3.5 Basic (which included DirectCD) and deleted two keys from the Registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\UdfReadr_xp
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\cdudf_xp

Actually, I think deletion of the first one was sufficient.

What is happening here is that packet-writing software such as DirectCD "takes over" the UDF1.5 format. Worse, DirectCD's UDF1.5 reader remains on your computer even after you've uninstalled DirectCD! That's why I had to turn off UdfReadr_xp via the Registry.

Note that Windows XP natively supports the formatting of a DVD-RAM disk as FAT32. Note also that the DVD-RAM driver included with the LG GSA-4040B drive supports both UDF1.5 and UDF2.0. My point is that even without uninstalling programs or deleting Registry entries, you might have better luck simply by formatting the DVD-RAM disk for the FAT32 or UDF2.0 filesystem.