How do I recover DVD+RWs which have been trashed?

[davewave]

When my previous standalone dvd recorder started giving disk errors, I tried a number of re-writables in it. The disks now cannot be recognised by my new recorder or my PC, on my PC I get an 'incorrect function' error or it does not see the disk at all.
Is there anyway of recovering the disks? I have tried formatting them in my new recorder and PC, but just get errors.

[moezilla.com]

You can recover your disks, if the problem isn't an issue with the new drive not recognizing the disk media (i.e. brand/quality).

Try to view your disks with DVD Info Pro, if the drive can see the disk you can format them using this tool. It can be found on this website.

Some burning software will have problems formatting other Mfg's software package burn format. (software compatibility)

Windows format command will always fail for me.

Good Luck !

[rmtaibo]

I remember I had this trouble when I used bitsetting in +RW media SET as DVD-ROM with my HP-200i. Some times my HP can't recognize the +RW media and had to erase it in my LG GSA-4040B drive. After this both HP and LG worked well with RW media. Maybe your new drive has different support about bitsetting compared with your old drive. Try to erase it in a drive that does not support bitsetting (Just speculating)

[tompika]

I remember I had this trouble when I used bitsetting in +RW media SET as DVD-ROM with my HP-200i. Some times my HP can't recognize the +RW media and had to erase it in my LG GSA-4040B drive. After this both HP and LG worked well with RW media. Maybe your new drive has different support about bitsetting compared with your old drive. Try to erase it in a drive that does not support bitsetting (Just speculating)

Booktype has nothing to do with it, especially in a HP200 (Ricoh5125)



@davewave
Try erasing in DVD Decrypter (right click source drive - erase)
or
Alcohol 120% (dont forget to ignore illegal TOC)

[davewave]

Thanks guys, I'll have a go when I get home from work.

[cal_tony]

I have had similar problems with +rw's and have tried just about everything to bring them back to life. Most of these disks were made inoperable by Nero 5.5 as this program would erase the disk before it would rewrite. Sometimes something would go wrong with the program or the drive. I don't why but somewhere along something would happen before it started rewritting and the program had to be aborted. The disk would not be able to be used again -error messages,etc. Some disks I was able to recoup with Nero CD SPEED. I would format the disk, full erase it reformat it again and then quick erase it . Sometimes this worked sometimes it didn't . I have tried the erase function in dycrypter and info pro with very limited sucess. In looking at these bad disks they seem to have lost stuff in their media discriptors. Some no longer have mnfg id some no longer list # of sectors. I still have a doz or so of these disks that still don't work so good luck.

[davewave]

DVDinfopro worked, you've saved me throwing away a load of disks, Thanks.