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Unable to format BD-RE 50GB


colinhunt

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I 11:17:35 Operation Started!

I 11:17:35 Device: [3:0:0] HL-DT-ST BD-RE GGW-H20L YL02 (N:) (ATA)

I 11:17:35 Media Type: BD-RE (Disc ID: TDKBLD-Wfa-00) (Speeds: 2x)

I 11:17:35 Quick Erase: No

I 11:17:35 Erasing Disc...

I 14:49:59 Synchronising Cache...

I 14:49:59 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 03:32:23

 

3.5 hours... lol

 

Best to format these things overnight ;)

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3.5 hours... lol

Best to format these things overnight ;)

Indeed. Ridiculous, isn't it? :D

 

I haven't found the time to try another full format on my Panny media yet. Care to hazard a guess what settings (FastWrite, Format without Spare Areas) I should use?

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You know that you don't need to erase DVD+RW, DVD-RAM or BD-RE media before rewriting on them, right? Simply click the Write/Build button and ImgBurn will ask you if you want to overwrite the disc :thumbup:

By the by, I just noticed this seems to be incorrect. I placed a previously burned (with ImgBurn 2.4.0.0) Maxell BD-RE 25GB in the LG drive, and the Write/Build button is greyed out. Below that, the status line reads "Disc Not Empty". Certainly looks like the disc needs to be emptied/formatted first.

 

edit: Unticked "Prefer properly formatted +RW" box and now ImgBurn allows burning without formatting first.

Edited by colinhunt
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It'll tell you if it needs erasing (even though it's automatic) - by using those very words. Unticking that box did nothing.

 

If the button was greyed out it's because your drive was reporting it as BD-ROM again, and that's out of my hands I'm afraid.

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It'll tell you if it needs erasing (even though it's automatic) - by using those very words. Unticking that box did nothing.

Ehh, sorry, what? First the write/build button was greyed out, then I unticked the box, and the button was no longer greyed out. Looks to me like unticking sure did something ;)

 

If the button was greyed out it's because your drive was reporting it as BD-ROM again, and that's out of my hands I'm afraid.

This was a different disc altogether; a Maxell 25GB BD-RE and drive reported it as BD-RE.

 

But while we're on this subject, any idea why the drive would report a BD-RE as a BD-ROM? Please note that this only happened after I used ImgBurn's Quick format on the disc. Is it possible to somehow 'override' the drive and force... hmmh, probably not.

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It's impossible for a properly recognised BD-RE to grey out the write button. period.

 

Don't forget, I have the H20L too, I've NEVER run into this problem and I certainly haven't unticked that 'properly formatted' option.

 

Here's a run down of what the program says in the status bar + button status for various BD-RE statuses.

 

Brand New Unformatted BD-RE

 

HL-DT-ST BD-RE  GGW-H20L YL02 (ATA)
Current Profile: BD-RE

Disc Information:
Status: Empty
Erasable: Yes
Supported Write Speeds: 2x

BD Disc Information:
Disc ID: VERBAT-IM0-00
Disc Type: BD-RE

Current Format Capacity:
Sectors: 12,219,392
Size: 25,025,314,816 bytes
Time: 2715:27:17 (MM:SS:FF)

Preferred Format Capacity:
Sectors: 11,826,176
Size: 24,220,008,448 bytes
Time: 2628:04:26 (MM:SS:FF)

Maximum Format Capacity:
Sectors: 12,219,392
Size: 25,025,314,816 bytes
Time: 2715:27:17 (MM:SS:FF)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read Mode - Disc Is Empty - Button Disabled
Build Mode - Ready (Disc Needs Formatting) - Button Enabled
Write Mode - Ready (Disc Needs Formatting) - Button Enabled
Verify Mode - Disc Is Empty - Button Disabled
Discovery Mode - Ready (Disc Needs Formatting) - Button Enabled

 

Empty Formatted BD-RE

 

HL-DT-ST BD-RE  GGW-H20L YL02 (ATA)
Current Profile: BD-RE

Disc Information:
Status: Complete
Erasable: Yes
Supported Write Speeds: 2x

TOC Information:
Session 1...
-> Track 01  (Mode 1, LBA: 0 - 11826175)
-> LeadOut  (LBA: 11826176)

BD Disc Information:
Disc ID: VERBAT-IM0-00
Disc Type: BD-RE

Current Format Capacity:
Sectors: 11,826,176
Size: 24,220,008,448 bytes
Time: 2628:04:26 (MM:SS:FF)

Preferred Format Capacity:
Sectors: 11,826,176
Size: 24,220,008,448 bytes
Time: 2628:04:26 (MM:SS:FF)

Maximum Format Capacity:
Sectors: 12,219,392
Size: 25,025,314,816 bytes
Time: 2715:27:17 (MM:SS:FF)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read Mode - Disc Is Empty - Button Disabled
Build Mode - Ready - Button Enabled
Write Mode - Ready - Button Enabled
Verify Mode - Disc Is Empty - Button Disabled
Discovery Mode - Ready - Button Enabled

 

Non-Empty Formatted BD-RE

 

HL-DT-ST BD-RE  GGW-H20L YL02 (ATA)
Current Profile: BD-RE

Disc Information:
Status: Complete
Erasable: Yes
Sessions: 1
Sectors: 11,826,176
Size: 24,220,008,448 bytes
Time: 2628:04:26 (MM:SS:FF)
Supported Write Speeds: 2x

TOC Information:
Session 1...
-> Track 01  (Mode 1, LBA: 0 - 11826175)
-> LeadOut  (LBA: 11826176)

BD Disc Information:
Disc ID: VERBAT-IM0-00
Disc Type: BD-RE

Current Format Capacity:
Sectors: 11,826,176
Size: 24,220,008,448 bytes
Time: 2628:04:26 (MM:SS:FF)

Preferred Format Capacity:
Sectors: 11,826,176
Size: 24,220,008,448 bytes
Time: 2628:04:26 (MM:SS:FF)

Maximum Format Capacity:
Sectors: 12,219,392
Size: 25,025,314,816 bytes
Time: 2715:27:17 (MM:SS:FF)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read Mode - Ready - Button Enabled
Build Mode - Ready (Disc Not Empty) - Button Enabled
Write Mode - Ready (Disc Not Empty) - Button Enabled
Verify Mode - Ready - Button Enabled
Discovery Mode - Ready (Disc Not Empty) - Button Enabled

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It's impossible for a properly recognised BD-RE to grey out the write button. period.

I'm not trying to pick a fight or say you're wrong; I'm simply reporting what I saw & experienced, that's all.

 

Here's a start of a hypothesis: I've used Nero 8 to Quick format all my brand new BD-REs before Quick formatting them with ImgBurn. There was a good reason for this, but I've forgotten what it was. It had something to do with being somehow unable to use (or quick format, perhaps) new discs with ImgBurn, unless they were first formatted by Nero.

 

Might that have something to do with any of this?

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I know you think that you're reporting in good faith but I'm simply saying that it's not possible.

 

Something else cocked up if the button was disabled - and as your drive has incorrectly reported BD discs before, I've good reason to believe that's what happened here.

 

As mentioned before, a quick erase in ImgBurn just writes zeroes to the first 800 sectors (enough to knock out the important part of the file system) - via the 'WRITE' command.

 

BD-RE (like DVD+RW) needs to be sent the proper 'FORMAT UNIT' command before *ANY* 'WRITE' command will work.

 

The 'FORMAT UNIT' command is only sent when doing a 'Full Erase'.

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Whoa, hey, stop the press!

 

I took out another Maxell BD-RE 25GB. This one was burned with Nero 8.

Started ImgBurn, ticked the "Prefer properly formatted +RW" box, closed ImgBurn and started it again. Dropped some ~20GB of Blu-ray data into Build window. Inserted disc into LG.

 

Write button is greyed out, status reads "Disc Not Empty". What the...? And then I noticed that 'Current profile' reads "BD-ROM".

 

It's possible that previous Maxell had also been reported as BD-ROM. I just realized that scrolling down the Device window, there's a Physical format information section which lists BD-RE. It's quite likely I took note of that and totally neglegted the 'Current profile'.

 

So!

 

I unticked "Prefer properly formatted +RW", ejected disc, reinserted it and boing! Write button is no longer greyed out and Current profile says BD-RE.

 

This got me thinking (about time, too). I ejected the Maxell, inserted the 50GB Panny BD-RE.... and ImgBurn lists the Current profile for it as BD-RE -- and Write button is not greyed out.

 

Clicked the Write button... and LG started writing on the disc. It's done 23% so far, at a steady Write rate of 2.0x.

 

Lessons learned so far:

 

1) I'm an idiot.

2) Sometimes it pays to play with tickboxes.

3) If possible, don't use Nero 8 for anything.

Edited by colinhunt
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It worked.

 

The 50GB Panasonic BD-RE I feared would be fit only for garbage burned fine. The data on the disc is OK, too, since the movie is right now playing on the PC next to me.

 

It's the same disc which Nero 8 couldn't quick or full format; the disc which ImgBurn was unable to format or write on while the "Prefer properly formatted" box was ticked.

 

I unticked the box, write button was enabled and the disc burned fine.

 

This has to have something to do with quick formatting brand new discs with Nero 8 before using them with ImgBurn.

 

What do you think?

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This is starting to get very mysterious indeed.

 

I ran ImgBurn with the 50GB disc in LG drive, 'Prefer' box NOT ticked, and...

Current profile: BD-ROM. Write button disabled.

 

Ticked the 'prefer' box. Ejected tray, inserted tray...

Current profile: BD-RE. Write button enabled.

 

Dragged 40GB of Blu-ray data into Build window. Boom!

Current profile: BD-ROM. Write button disabled.

 

Deleted data from Build window. Unticked the 'prefer' box. Ejected tray, inserted tray...

Current profile: BD-RE. Write button enabled.

 

Dragged 36GB of Blu-ray data into Build window. Whoosh!

Current profile: BD-ROM. Write button disabled.

 

Ejected tray, inserted tray:

Current profile: BD-RE. Write button enabled.

Clicked Write button. Pop-up: "Data will be overwritten. Continue yes/no?"

Clicked yes and writing commenced.

 

Drive reports profile as BD-RE, but when you drag data into Build window and check again, profile's been switched to BD-ROM.

 

What on earth is going on here?

Edited by colinhunt
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Your drive is a bit poorly!

 

dragging data to the 'source' box doesn't refresh the drive info so if it's doing that without you telling it to, it means the drive went from being 'ready' to not being ready all by itself.

 

As it's so on/off, any chance you could try it in another machine and see if it does the same?

 

It can only be the hardware (cable perhaps?) or some dodgy/conflicting driver so troubleshooting shouldn't take too long.

 

If say you did 10 tray cycles (without changing anything else), how many of those return a current profile of 'BD-ROM' where it should be 'BD-RE'?

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Your drive is a bit poorly!

Still under warranty, luckily :)

 

dragging data to the 'source' box doesn't refresh the drive info so if it's doing that without you telling it to, it means the drive went from being 'ready' to not being ready all by itself.

How is that even possible? Drive reported BD-RE, I dragged data to source box, and profile is changed to BD-ROM. If there's no refresh from ImgBurn, how would you explain this? (I'm not claiming ImgBurn does a refresh, I'm asking for a theory :) )

 

As it's so on/off, any chance you could try it in another machine and see if it does the same?

Most of my PCs are from stone age, but I do have one other PC I could try the drive in. Will take some time to test, though.

 

It can only be the hardware (cable perhaps?) or some dodgy/conflicting driver so troubleshooting shouldn't take too long.

The drive resides currently in my video editing PC which has loads of various burning apps installed. It could certainly be a driver issue, but I don't know how to even start investigating that.

 

If say you did 10 tray cycles (without changing anything else), how many of those return a current profile of 'BD-ROM' where it should be 'BD-RE'?

I'll test this once the current burn is done.

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Ah, do you have 'Auto Calculate' enabled?

 

It would indeed refresh when that's on (it's not on by default and I don't enable it).

 

There's still no reason for the current profile to change though - especially when the tray hasn't even been cycled!

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Alcohol 120%, Daemon Tools, AnyDVD HD - any of these a possible culprit? I keep AnyDVD HD disabled when burning, though.

 

During the previous BD-RE/BD-ROM profile swapping I didn't have AnyDVD HD loaded in memory at all. Alcohol and DT are also disabled, i.e. there's no tray icon for them, and neither is there a context menu for either one.

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Did a bunch of tray cycles.

 

'Prefer' box unticked-

10/10 cycles profile comes to BD-RE

 

'Prefer' box ticked-

10/10 cycles BD-RE

 

Then I tested what happens when profile is BD-RE and I drag some data into Source box, with Auto calculate enabled.

10/10 x BD-RE is replaced by BD-ROM.

 

Profile stays as BD-RE if I disable Auto calculate.

Edited by colinhunt
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