Fix a bad DVD-RW burn? HOW!?!?!?

Gillbot · Post by **Gillbot** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 3:53 pm

Tried to burn a DVD-RW and things went bad......

Now when I put the DVD-RW in to erase it, my system hangs. Is this DVD-RW toast? How can I erase it if it hangs the system?

I also have another disk I erased with nero now the drive won't recognize it at all. I think my drive is toast, and it's only 2 months old!

the only writing software i have installed is nero 6 ultra, i removed dvd x copy, which is the program that tanked 2 discs.

i did an erase with nero on one disc that finished burning but wasn't readable and now wnen the disc is inserted into the drive, all programs report the dvd drive as not able to be initalized.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 5:15 pm

try booting the pc with the dvd-rw already in the drive...that will stop it from trying to autoplay. maybe you'll get lucky and can erase it then.

.02

Gillbot · Post by **Gillbot** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 5:22 pm

Actually, the funny thing is I finally got the really bad one to erase but the one I erased with nero won't initialize anymore. I basically can't do anything with it. When I put it in the drive, the drive stops responding. If I boot with it in the drive, windows won't load.

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 6:43 pm

Yep, this is problem, your not alone!

I always forget what ket it is, maybe Ctrl, press and hold it when you put in the disk. It shouldn't read or try to load it then. Do a FULL format on the disk. That should fix it

Yea, I had the same thing, really hard to figure out how to format a disk when the system locks or won't reboot when the disk is in the drive! If you can get the disk into the drive with out locking the system and you check disk info with nero, it will probably show as a cdrw for some stupid reason! Mine normally do when I have this problem!

I have a toshiba sd-r5002 -r drive and cheap 1x -Rw disk (princo I think) and when I do a quick erase with nero I have your same problem everytime! Full format works if you can get it!

Normally the disk isn't trashed, but for me It isn't really worth all the headaches for a $1 disk! So I stack em to the side, then when my system isn't needed for a few hours (like bed time), I drop one in and format it then. Waiting an hour to full format a $1 disk is bull! SO I have a 25 pack, no waiting

Also I have had to full format/erase a few more than once to get it to work. First it was reconized as a CD, got it formating and got errors or a crash or something, but then it showed up as a DVD again and the next time it formatted fine.
Like I say, not really worth it for $1 very often!

I'll be buying Riteks next time and see what happens!
My cheapo DVD -R disk are working great, but these Cheapo -RW disks might as well be -R instead!!

Gillbot · Post by **Gillbot** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 7:01 pm

Well, the problem is that if I put the disk in, Nero or every other program reports the drive as "Unable to be initialized" as long as the media is in. How can I erase it if the drive won't respond? I tried erasing with DVD Info Pro as well to no avail.

EDIT> I know it's only $1 a disk but this makes 3 of 4 I've written as coasters. Something isn't right if I can't write or erase -RW disks! I don't wanna waste -R disks if I can get this dam thing to work!

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 7:34 pm

You got the disk into the drive and got into nero, but Nero won't initialize? Hmmm. I got a couple here I need to do, I'll give it a try again later tonight and see exactly what I have to do. System is busy now and I'll be leaving soon so it will be awhile.

I though You couldn't get to Nero at all when you try to put the disk into the system. Either lockups, reboots, or won't boot.

I 'll see what mine does.

chottoED · Post by **chottoED** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 8:06 pm

go download the latest firmware and flash the drive... it's fixed many a screwy drive for me

Gillbot · Post by **Gillbot** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 9:14 pm

The drive has the latest firmware.

If I leave the DVD in the drive and boot, the system hangs till I remove it.
If I put the DVD in the drive while the system is on it hangs until I remove it unless I hold shift, then I can get it in but as soon as I open nero (it takes 20mins for nero to open) nothing works right. I guess it's a -RW coaster.

Anyone have 1 or 2 DVD-R's they'd sell cheap so I can try some decent media? These CompUSA DVD-RW's suck IMHO.

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 11:04 pm

What kinda drive you got? Media and drive compatibilty is trickey sometimes.
Some fo the best "NAME" disks are made by the worst oem disk companies. There are reports of fake Maxell disks that are junk, but the right codes are supposedly good still.

I am using cheapo 1x disks (about 80cents) and never have a problem. Course I can only burn em at 1x

Some people can burn them at 2x in their drives. Some are happy, others make 25% coasters!
My 2x drive will only burn them at 1x though.

I would sell you a few, but by the time we paid shipping a couple $0.80 disks would run you about $4-$5 probably

Go to places like Rima.com, supermediaoutlet.com, meritline.com. I think those places have sample packs you can buy. Like 2 of 5 different disks in a pack, range from cheap to reasonable priced disks.
Might cost you $10 or so, but at least you'll know which work for you (hopefully) Maybe they all will?

Most everyone doing alot of burns I been talking to like Ritek G03 or G04 disks. Best place I found on those is Rima.com for prices so far, haven't ordered from them yet, but I heard good things about them.
I'm looking into disk printers, so since I buy lots of disks at once I am waiting to see if I want the printable Riteks or regular. Then I'll buy 100 Riteks.

Right now I am doing alot of burning for friends of camcorder stuff, getting some capturing and authoring practice.

Gillbot · Post by **Gillbot** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 5:32 am

Optorite DD0203 using CrapUSA Media.

Gillbot · Post by **Gillbot** » Sat Oct 04, 2003 8:29 am

no other ideas?

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Sun Oct 05, 2003 7:53 am

Nope, no more ideas.

Just mark those disks as problem disks and put them away safely for now. Latter if anyone comes up with an idea on this you'll still have them. In the mean time don't get them confused with your working ones. And when you need to erase one, use FULL erase, NOT quick! Quick erase or quick format causes this problem for me.

If you have a friend with a burner close by, have them try to format the disks for you with a different burner, Maybe that would get them erased and working again. DOn't know.

One last thought you might try if you haven't already.

Put a blank rw never used into your drive and start Nero. Check the disk info with nero. Then take out disk, put in bad disk, hold the key down so it does not try to read and autostart the disk, then click disk info again and see if it shows the disk this time. That could work by tricking it to think the other disk was in the drive, then it might try to read the bad disk and will probably show it as a CD! Then go and format/full erase the disk and see if that works.
It was something similar to that I was able to save a couple before when I had the same type problem.

I can't find my bad ones, I either put them up and there lost, or I already fixed them?? I thought I still had 3 or 4 that were bad. All the ones I been trying now either show as blanks ready to write, or have data on them readable.

It's disk info or media info, I been using alot of programs and similar things are called different names in various programs. I know em when I see em but hard to remember at times.

Gillbot · Post by **Gillbot** » Sun Oct 05, 2003 2:19 pm

what about this 9.4GB media, what's the deal with it?

Gillbot · Post by **Gillbot** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 9:09 pm

Originally posted by Gillbot
what about this 9.4GB media, what's the deal with it?