brassplyer said:
I've got a stack of Ativa DVD-RW's. They burn fine, and once ejected
will play in a set-top player with no problem. But can't get them to
re-mount to be erased either in the burner that made them or in 2
other drives.
Any suggestions why this might be?
Thanks
It would help, to see if any of the media details can be read or not.
For example, Nero Infotool, has a tab labeled "Disc", and it will
give details on the media itself. You don't have to buy Nero to
get it, as the developer makes it available separately for download.
http://majorgeeks.com/Nero_InfoTool_d120.html
Whenever I have trouble with my Windows tools, doing something with
flaky discs, I have the alternative of booting a Linux LiveCD and
using something like K3B, which is a burner application they have.
I find it good for cases which mismatch, like attempting to burn a
700MB ISO9660 for a CD, onto a DVD. K3B also has an option to
just erase an inserted disc. Between my Windows tools and Linux tool,
I can usually get the job done. When the media is really bad,
then nothing works, and it is time to toss the media.
When burning discs, it also helps to find some tool to do error
scans, because that helps tell you whether the whole thing is
working in the first place. Discs always have errors, but there
is a big difference between 10 errors and 10,000 errors. Discs
have error correction, which is why they can tolerate errors in
the first place. Once the error rate reaches a high enough level,
then the light stays on, on the optical drive, as it frantically
tries to read the same bad sectors over and over again. Some
drives basically just lose it, and a reboot is necessary to
return sanity to them.
The advantage of error scans, is it tells you whether you should be
buying more of the media or not. Buy a three-pack, and test that
first. Scan for errors. If the error rate is low after a burn,
you may have a winner. (No disc has zero errors. There are always some.)
If the error rate is high, and only increases as you go across the
disc surface, then don't buy any more of them.
When you get a new drive, try to find a firmware update for the drive
first. Use the latest firmware you can find, then start testing a
few three-packs. If you find some winners, then you can buy some
size of spindle of the same media. I find now, on a burner purchase,
you spend as much for test media, as you do for the burner. Prepare
to spend a week testing and dialing in the drive, before doing any
serious work with it.
There is a forum here (apparently what remains of cdfreaks.com), where
you can find reviews of particular burners.
(forum)
http://club.myce.com/f91/cdfreaks-presents-lg-gh22lp20-22x-super-multi-dvd-writer-review-252153/
(review)
http://www.myce.com/review/LG-GH22LP20-Super-Multi-DVD-Writer-Review-15000/
In the review, they have examples of error scans. This one isn't bad.
http://gfx.cdfreaks.com/reviews/lg_gh22lp20/image065.png
This is an example of one with problems...
http://gfx.cdfreaks.com/reviews/lg_gh22lp20/image085.png
And here, you can see the impact that has on readback speed.
The drive slows down, and attempts retries, to get the data.
http://gfx.cdfreaks.com/reviews/lg_gh22lp20/image086.png
Nero DiscSpeed is also available for download. I don't know
what the latest version is. The name may have changed, from
CD-Speed, to CD-DVD Speed, to DiscSpeed. The one I have is
version 4.7.7.13.
http://majorgeeks.com/Nero_DiscSpeed_d118.html
You could also try looking here for the DiscSpeed program here.
This version is very recent.
ftp://ftp6.nero.com/tools/
HTH,
Paul
