DVD Multi-burner trouble

[tom2517]

Hello,

I have a problem with my DVD burner, it doesn't recognize the DVD that it had just burned (I used IBM Recordnow)?

I took it out and put into another computer and no problem. But on my T43, I can not open up the DVD-ROM icon for some reason.

Also, when I use the burner, if I had used DLA to format it, it will render the DVD-R useless. I can not format it before I burn it.

I have used in PC in a while (Mac fan) so is there something simple that I am missing?

[pipspeak]

Not sure about the DVD burner, but I find with the CD burner my T40 will not recognise a disc it just burned unless I open and reclose the CD tray(or take out and replace the CD). It's almost as if the burner needs to be reset after burning a disc.

[GomJabbar]

Also, when I use the burner, if I had used DLA to format it, it will render the DVD-R useless. I can not format it before I burn it.

When you format a DVD/R with DLA, all you can do is copy files from your hard drive to the DVD/R - just as you would copy them from one location on the hard drive to another. You highlight the file, select copy from the menu, then go to the DVD/R drive (probably the D: drive in My Computer), and select paste from the menu.

Once you format with DLA, you can no longer use the DVD/R with IBM RecordNow! to burn files onto it. At least this is how I understand it.

[Inky]

Hello,
Also, when I use the burner, if I had used DLA to format it, it will render the DVD-R useless. I can not format it before I burn it.

I have used in PC in a while (Mac fan) so is there something simple that I am missing?

Formatting is for REWRITABLE disks only. DVD-RW for instance. If you format a write-once DVD-R then you'll render it useless.

On Write-ONCE DVD's (DVD-R's) the data must be burned onto the disk perfectly. The DVD burning software you use must be given a complete picture of what you want to copy to the disk, then the software figures out how it's going to lay down the tracks in a perfect pattern of sequential concentric circles to properly fill the disk with whatever you wanted to put on it. The data must be layed down in a perfect arrangement because there is no opportunity to erase & rewrite.

You didn't say anything about what you're trying to put on the disk. Audio? Video? Or data that often changes? If you want the flexibility of re-writable disk then there are two types of rewritable DVD's.
One is DVD-RW which is basically a big version of CD-RW.
Another is DVD-RAM which is great if your desktop sytem also has a DVD-RAM disk capable drive (like IBM's multi burner)

If you want to be able to drag & drop files to a DVD-RW (or CD-RW) you generally have to have some special software running in the background on your system which allows the DVD-RW to be treated like a giant floppy disk. DLA is one example. There are others (from Roxio and probably Nero). This drag & drop ease of use has a price. The same software--or at least a "reader" version usually needs to be present on other systems for them to read the disk.

With DVD-RAM disks it's a bit simpler--there is less need for special software, but as I said before, to read the DVD-RAM disk on another system that system would also have to have a DVD-RAM capable drive.

Hope that helps.

-Inky

[GomJabbar]

Formatting is for REWRITABLE disks only. DVD-RW for instance. If you format a write-once DVD-R then you'll render it useless.

Good point Inky. I had kind of forgotten about that. I gave up doing drive letter access a couple of years ago because of the reliability issues I was having, and because of the other point you brought out about needing the reader on all computers that you want to read the disks.

Interestingly, a little over a month ago, I was installing Nero 6 Ultra Edition on a desktop PC, and I decided to install the reader to read these old disks I had made. Since I posted the story before, I won't go into all of it now, but the Nero INCD reader would not allow me to boot up Windows XP in Safe Mode. I could only boot up in Normal Mode. When I uninstalled just the INCD reader, everything was fine again.

[tom2517]

Hello,
Also, when I use the burner, if I had used DLA to format it, it will render the DVD-R useless. I can not format it before I burn it.

I have used in PC in a while (Mac fan) so is there something simple that I am missing?

Formatting is for REWRITABLE disks only. DVD-RW for instance. If you format a write-once DVD-R then you'll render it useless.

On Write-ONCE DVD's (DVD-R's) the data must be burned onto the disk perfectly. The DVD burning software you use must be given a complete picture of what you want to copy to the disk, then the software figures out how it's going to lay down the tracks in a perfect pattern of sequential concentric circles to properly fill the disk with whatever you wanted to put on it. The data must be layed down in a perfect arrangement because there is no opportunity to erase & rewrite.

You didn't say anything about what you're trying to put on the disk. Audio? Video? Or data that often changes? If you want the flexibility of re-writable disk then there are two types of rewritable DVD's.
One is DVD-RW which is basically a big version of CD-RW.
Another is DVD-RAM which is great if your desktop sytem also has a DVD-RAM disk capable drive (like IBM's multi burner)

If you want to be able to drag & drop files to a DVD-RW (or CD-RW) you generally have to have some special software running in the background on your system which allows the DVD-RW to be treated like a giant floppy disk. DLA is one example. There are others (from Roxio and probably Nero). This drag & drop ease of use has a price. The same software--or at least a "reader" version usually needs to be present on other systems for them to read the disk.

With DVD-RAM disks it's a bit simpler--there is less need for special software, but as I said before, to read the DVD-RAM disk on another system that system would also have to have a DVD-RAM capable drive.

Hope that helps.

-Inky

Thanks for clearing up some point. Yes, I forgot about you can't format DVD-R CD-R.

I did tried the taking the disc out and putting it back in, but it doesn't work. However, it worked when I restarted the computer. But it is a pain if I had to restart everytime....

Plus, with some disc, even restart the computer won't work. It's got to be a glitch somewhere in the software...

It's the same for all sorts of files, jpg, doc, ppt.....

Should I just give up IBM Recordnow and tried someother software?

[Inky]

Should I just give up IBM Recordnow and tried someother software?

If you're content to just use Write Once media like DVD-R then I would use Nero software. They have a 30 day free trial of "Nero 6 Ultra Edition" at www.nero.com

If you mainly want to use rewritable DVD-RW's then I would use Roxio's "EZ Media Creator" from www.Roxio.com

My own preference is to use DVD-RAM disks. The only software needed for that is the Windows driver. Once you install the UDF driver it lets you format, read, and write DVD-RAM disks using UDF (Universal Disk Format). Once it's formatted you can drag and drop files to the disk using Windows Explorer. You can even create folders, delete folders, rename files, etc... directly on the disk, as if it were a giant floppy disk--as long as the drive supports DVD-RAM disks. (IBM's Multi-Burner does).

-Inky