LIGHTNING UK!

Which version of AnyDVD are you running? The 'Medium Not Present' error being returned by the drive (but in actual fact, AnyDVD) looks like a bug to me. You should report it to them - assuming you're on the very latest version (including betas - v7.0.3.2 as of this moment). It's probably reporting that (incorrect) error because the disc is unreadable (scratched / dirty / faulty).

Your drive reported a 'Write Error' when trying to burn to the disc. You're using low quality DVD+R DL media, read this - http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=8000 Why are you even using DL discs in the first place? The program did tell you that your image would fit on a regular SL disc just fine (see below). That doesn't look right. Don't try and reuse a disc that has failed previously, you're just wasting your time.

That isn't a disc to disc copy. Build mode makes a new file system based on the contents of the 'Source' box. Reading to an image and then Writing preserves the original file system. If you really must do that workaround method of disc-to-disc (it's only saving you a few mins and in fact, you've lost them again by asking this question!), you'll have to pick one of the layer break positions from the list. Use the stars to help you. The double layer DVD Video guides in the Guides forum may also help.

Artificially slowing down the reading/writing to and from your hdd isn't going to make the final ISO any different - it's digital after all Can you try playing the ISO (via a virtual drive) using some proper (licensed) Blu-ray software on the PC to see if it has the same problem? (PowerDVD / TMT etc)

Your problem is nothing to do with the speed at which the ISO gets built. Compare the files in the ISO to the ones in the folders on your hdd and you'll see they're identical. It sounds more like an issue with the media player.

I've been told you have an original Bravo unit that was manufacturered in August 2003. I understand this model hasn't ever been supported by PTRobot (going by a quick look through the software archive) so I'm afraid you're out of luck. There's a version of PTBurn (from 2005) that may work with it but that would be via totally different software (whatever you used before I guess). I must have got lucky when I picked my unit up from ebay - I certainly didn't know anything about certain models being unsupported at the time and just went for one that was a great price!

The 'Sony' name stamped on the discs doesn't mean anything, you're using 'RITEK-F16-01' dye/MID discs. Sony could chop and change the dye/MID they use whenever they like - so a spindle of discs you buy today might not be the same as the one you got last week. Yes, your drive might benefit from being cleaned. It would probably also perform a little better on some quality discs - Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden (Victor JVC). That said, slimline drives aren't my favourite.

To be fair, they did answer the question about the error code, I just didn't mention it to you - and that's my fault. At which point I asked you to provide them (the debug/trace ones). As for the crashing, if there was ever something concrete that would enable me to reproduce the crash, I'd do it and fix it asap. It's very hard to fix something I can't reproduce.... I've tried and failed several times. If you aren't already doing so, make sure you tell the program to send me the crash dump.

As it happens, I had a reply from them last night but hadn't had a chance to relay it back to you... They said... I will reply to them confirming it's a firewire connection to the drive and USB to the robot (as I already asked you that question) and perhaps link them to this thread in case they're interested. As for their other questions, perhaps you could answer those when you get a minute. Thanks.

That's the problem, your drive is returning incorrect info - due to a firmware bug. You might be able to find a firmware update to fix the issue by visiting the website of whoever manufactured your laptop.

Please look at that disc using IsoBuster. It'll show you the two file systems on the disc and show you the names recorded in each one. I'd like to think you'll see that the UDF side of things is correct and has spaces in the names where they were originally. So then what we need to figure out is why Windows is only loading the ISO9660 file system and not the 'better' UDF one. There is no setting in ImgBurn that can make it convert spaces to underscores for all file systems. It only ever does it for the ISO9660 one - as per the specs.

You can use whatever the drive reports is available. The 122* figure sounds like the typical size of a BD-R disc. The 118* figure sounds like the typical size of a BD-R disc that's been formatted with spare areas enabled, thus enabling the drives defect management.

Can you do a full erase on the disc? Right click the drive selection drop down box and you'll find 'Erase' on there. or click the Erase button in the Destination box when in Write mode.

That sounds normal for an ISO9660 filesystem. What are you trying to use the disc in that only supports ISO9660 rather than Joliet or UDF (which do allow spaces) ?

When you're in Read mode, copy + paste the disc info from the box on the right please. Oh and make sure you're using the current version of ImgBurn first please - v2.5.7.0

You wouldn't get that error if you're just trying to change the 'Advanced Settings', it's totally unrelated. You need to bring up the 'Change Advanced Settings' window and that can be done in numerous ways.... 1. Right click the drive drop down selection box and pick the option from the context menu. 2. Once you're in a mode where a drive is active (i.e. anything other than Ez-Mode Picker), click Tools -> Drive and find the option on that menu. 3. Press the 'Change Advanced Settings' button down the bottom right of the main window when in Write mode (plus some of the others).

It's 4 screws and 2 cables you have to remove from 1 drive and put back in the new one. Did you try changing the settings I mentioned in my first post? There's no trickery going on here. Depending on how a few things are configured, all programs behave the same way - that's because it's the drive that's failing to do something and not anything software related.

That's not packet writing.

You could keep messing around with things or just invest $20 in a new burner.

Packet writing isn't something you'd ever get in a free program and I have no intention of/interest in adding it (nor would I have a clue on where to start). It probably requires low level drivers to deal with everything and you're better off just using what's build into Explorer.

It all comes down to the disc info written to the box on the right. If the DVD/BD disc is shown to have multiple tracks, you're currently blocked from using Read mode. Can't you have tmpgenc output to a folder and then burn that in ImgBurn? Failing that, do as it says and add the drive letter of your optical drive to the 'Source' box in ImgBurn's Build mode and make a new 'cleaner' ISO. I've had no experience of multi track DVD/BD discs so that's why they're currently handled the way they are. It might actually be possibly for me to relax Read mode's blocking mechanism for this kind of disc.

There are probably workarounds but your drive shouldn't be having the problems it's having if it was working correctly. Changing the 'Write Type' to 'Incremental' in the settings may work or you could try enabling the 'Perform OPC Before Write' option.

ImgBurn doesn't do packet writing - i.e. the live file system thing that Windows 7 supports. If you want that you'll have to buy something like Nero. The Write Type should be left on DAO/SAO unless there's a compelling reason to change it. It's the only one that lets ImgBurn do the things it's supposed to. ImgBurn always closes/finalises when it burns so only use it for complete projects / disc images.

If the power from the cell battery was low enough to somehow cause bits to flip in CMOS data, a checksum failure would occur - and of course that would mean the defaults get loaded and you get prompted at bootup to deal with the issue. So I still can't really see it causing a problem. But anyway, if you say the problem is now fixed then it's all good.

Why can't you change those advanced settings? The first thing I'd do is take overspeed off. Also, ensure you've done the simple things like *power cycle* the entire machine (not just reboot, actually turn it off and on again).