Write protect on DVD-Ram with Toshiba RD-XS32

[XrayDuke]

I have searched here and on google and read the manual to try to find the answer to my problem. I bought some new Panasonic DVD-Ram disc for my Toshiba RD-XS32 recorder. They are the single sided disc without the cartridge sold at Wally World. When I insert the disc and go to initialize the disc I get a message that says the disc is write protected. I then did a DVD physical format that takes 70 minutes to do and afterward still got the same write protect warning.

How can I go in and turn off the write protect? I've gone through all the menus and through the manual but cannot find what I need. DVD-R and DVD-RW work fine. I don't use the DVD-RAM much but I want to be able to use if I can and also if it is a problem with the recorder it is still under warranty. Thanks in advance for your help.

[samijubal]

Are they the right version discs? Standalones only work with certain versions of discs, check the manual.

[handyguy]

Did you look at the disk itself & see if there is something you slide to turn off write protect?

[XrayDuke]

Yes, they are the correct version DVD-RAM.

[XrayDuke]

Did you look at the disk itself & see if there is something you slide to turn off write protect?

It is the single sided disc without a cartridge. There is nothing to adjust on the disc itself. The cartridge type disc has a write protect slide switch.

[samijubal]

If it's the right version disc, I'd think there's something wrong with the recorder. I would take one of the discs to someplace that sells that recorder and see if they work in one of theirs.

[piano632]

Would these happen to be 5x RAM discs? If so, it's possible they may not be compatible with the drive.

I use Panasonic 3x RAM discs on my JVC recorder all the time with no problems.

[handyguy]

"It is the single sided disc without a cartridge. There is nothing to adjust on the disc itself."

Oh, right. Maybe it has a software protect then?

[samijubal]

I have a bunch of Panasonic RAM discs that I've used in 4 different recorders, including a Toshiba. Unless they are 5x discs as already stated, they should work. I don't think it's even possible to write protect an empty disc.

[XrayDuke]

They are 3x Panasonic disc. It may be time to check out the extended warranty bacause the recorder used to have no problem with the DVD-Ram's. Thanks for all the feedback.

[samijubal]

I have noticed the Toshiba doesn't seem to like RAM discs as much as R or RW, everything with a RAM takes twice as long as the others. All the Panasonics I've used are the opposite, they favor RAM discs.

[XrayDuke]

Update on the DVD-Ram problems. The recorder has gone to Best Buy for repairs. After talking with Toshiba Customer Service they said the DVD drive was going bad and needed to be replaced. Hopefully it will come back fixed and ready to to go. If that doesn't work I have the extended warranty that goes through 2008.

[mjoury]

XrayDuke:

I was trying to resolve the exact same problem and joined this forum just to respond to your post.

I have a Panasinic SW-9574C that I bought specifically for it's DVD-RAM capability as I already have both a Plextor 708 and a 716. At any rate I am experiencing the same problem as you are BUT only with certain media. As I have a DVD-RAM stand-alone recorder I had several types of media lying around including Panasonic single-sided. Panasonic double-sided w/cartridge (Type 4), Optodisk single-sided w/cartridge (Type 2), and Hotam double-sided w/cartridge (Type 1). To make a long story short I tested ALL of the above media and it all works EXCEPT for the Hotam media. With the Hotam media it is a hit ir miss operation with some disks and other disks simply refuse to format under any circumstances and no matter how many time I try.

My stand-alone DVD player/recorder also appears to have problems with the Hotam media (my stand-alone player also happens to be made by Panasonic). So I am guessing that for some reason the Panasonic drives (matsushita <sp?>) have problems with Hotam media. I am wondering if in fact there is nothing wrong with your drive but that you are experiencing some type of media incompatibility.

One other thing: I decided to format the media as UDF instead of FAT32 using Nero InCD (UDF being the better format for optical media). And when I tried to format the Hotam media InCD reproted an error (all other disks -- and I tired ALL the other types I had -- formatted just fine). However the error said nothing about the disk being write protected, It came back with a message saying that there was a problem formatting the disk and to make sure that the media was compatible with the recorder. After all the efforts I had trying to format the same disk using FAT32 and the insistance of Windows XP that the disk was write protected I found the info provided by InCD to be much more believable and useful.

I will be very interested to hear how your situation turns out.

Good luck.

[mjoury]

Well, I got the spelling wrong in my previous post -- it is Hotan not Hotam. Be that as it may, here is another post I came across about Hotan media:

Quote
I have a question that I'm sure someone out there knows.

I have a G4 with the stock DVD-RAM drive. I've successfully formatted, written, and read from Maxell DVD-RAM media.

So I tried a bargain media -- "Hotan" DVD-RAM disks.

When I try to insert the disk, the drive takes a little while, and then I get a dialog box indicating that the disk needs to be formatted. However, the only selection I get is for "ProDOS 0k." I don't get the selection that I do with the Maxell for the usual 2.6G formatting.

Anyway, when I make that selection anyway, I get a dialog that "the disk could not be formatted because it is protected." I've checked and double-checked, and it is write-enabled.

Any suggestions out there? I would really like to get these disks to work since they are like 1/3 the price of the Maxells. Of course, it's not worth it if they don't work. . . .
Unquote

So it appears that I may not be the only one having problems with Hotan media. Anyone else experiencing problems?