DVD+RW issue

[codeman]

CD Drive (E) list the CD as Blank and ask “What do you want Windows to do? The window has several program icons showing to open the DVD. I choose “Open writeable CD folder using Windows Explorer”.

Disk is not formatted window reads: “Windows cannot read from this disk. The disk might be corrupted, or it could be using a format that is not compatible with Windows.”

I burned the disk on my computer some time ago. I do not recall which program I used to backup the data to the disk. I thought I made the archive data DVD to be able to read using Windows explorer. I know I removed Nero 6 from my computer but I do have other DVD burning software on the computer. I do not recall making the data DVD with Nero 6 or with MyDVD Studio Deluxe or with Genie Backup.

The computer does recognized the backup data on a DVD+R but not the DVD+RW.

Any suggestions on why the computer will not read the DVD+RW disk?

[redwudz]

Did you finalize the disc? If not, your drive may not be able to read it. You might try ISOBuster and it might be able to extract the files. Or at least try a different drive. Not all drives do a good job of reading RW discs.

[codeman]

It is a DVD+RW and I do not think you finalize it if you are going to add or take away data. The disk was used for archiving some of my files. Nothing with video is on it. I have not tried ISOBuster because I thought it was for only video.

All I wanted off the disk was my free Nero 6 software installation file downloaded some years ago. Do not know for sure it is on the DVD. I forgot that DVDShrink3.2 needed Nero 6 to copy a DVD movie.

I have researched for Nero 6 as a really free software and can find nothing that allows it to be completely free anymore.

I have other DVD burning software but DVDShrink does not show them as usable.

My son has a DVD movie which is the same VHS movie I have. I wanted to use DVDShrink to make my DVD of the movie. Now I guess I will have spend hours capturing the movie from my VHS and then burning it to DVD.

Any ideas or sites I can go to for a free Nero 6. I read too many complaints about newer versions of Nero and my Internet Explorer list the Nero site as possible fraud issues.

[John-Paul]

Give IsoBuster a go as suggested by redwudz.

Otherwise, you may be in a catch-22, Nero 6 (which is on your unfinalized rw) automatically installed InCD which may allow you to view and copy to HDD the contents of unfinalized +/-rw's. (for myself, it meant unfinalized vro's from my DVD recorder were viewable).

InCD 5 is a free download tool:
http://www.nero.com/ena/tools-utilities.html

[redwudz]

DVD Shrink has a version that can automatically use the freeware ImgBurn instead of Nero. http://download3.videohelp.com/DVDShrink32_w_ImgBurn.rar

7-Zip can extract the file from the .rar archive if you don't have WinRAR on your system.
IMHO, it also does a much better job of burning than Nero.

[codeman]

My computer is around 6-years old. I do not know if 7-zip or WinRAR is on the system. I keep up with Mircrosoft updates. I have lots of ram and storage. Can you give me links to the7-zip and/or WinRAR site so that I may download the programs?

My internet provider AT&T list www.nero.com as a site that is possible fraud. Is it a safe site?

Thanks for the help.
I will install the ImgBurn tonight when I get home. Maybe more questions then and I will recheck this forum again tonight.

[bevills1]

Try IZARC zip utility that's a free download from http://www.izarc.org/download.html . I've tried others but IZARC works best IMO and is compatible with RAR, ZIP and many other compressed file formats.

From your initial post it sounds like you may have done an InCD format of RW media and then saved files to it. InCD uses packet writing which is very unreliable for many and became so unreliable for me that I stopped using it. An RW disk would read fine initially and then become unreadable with Windows showing disk properties as having no free space even though there were just a few MBs on the disk. This happened again and again until I finally began burning data instead and dumped the unreliable packet writing.

Edit: You might try to see if the CDRW is readable on another drive which would allow an opportunity to make another copy and recover Nero if it works. In my failed InCD experience sometimes the disk would read on one drive but not read on another, and other times it failed to read on all drives tried. It won't hurt to give it a try. FYI Nero 6 updates downloads are no longer available from Nero, but the latest 6.6.1.15c version is available from filehippo if you do recover your Nero and need the update.

[Nelson37]

Packet-writing is so bad and so unreliable that it is on the short list of "features" that I immediately remove whenever encountered on customer's machines. It simply does not work correctly a large part of the time. If interested, look up "Mt. Rainier compatibility for CD drives". InCD I immediately uninstall without hesitation, as it not only does not work reliably but also causes numerous problems.

Why would you need Shrink and Nero to copy a DVD? Not at all necessary for a home-made disk.

IMGBURN. Get it, use it, and forget Nero.

I like 7-zip myself, just Google it and pick a reputable download site. WinRAR also good, lots of others.

[codeman]

Thanks to all I was able to download and get the program back working.

I used the DVDShrink32_w_ImgBurn.rar and extracted it with the IZARC zip.

Installed the DVD Shink but the ImaBurn was not included. Downloaded the IMGBURN and installed it.

DVD Shink worked and the Imgburn along with Nero is listed as the burning method.