allow deletion of write-once media

[Florin Andrei]

Case in point: I bought a 25-pack of DVD-R disks yesterday. They were branded "Sony" so I thought they were good. I wrote a home video on a disk, tried to play it with my DVD player, it worked okay except at the end it failed. The whole pack is bad, the disks are good at the beginning, but the end is not readable.

 

I need to return the pack to get my money back. The store won't accept it unless I return all the disks (they count them). But I don't want them to have access to my movie - it's nothing important or sensitive, it's just a matter of privacy in principle. So I need to erase the disk.

 

The problem is, ImgBurn won't let me delete write-once media. I tried to fool it into thinking it's really a DVD-RW disk, but I couldn't. It would be nice if ImgBurn had a special option somewhere to just go ahead and write garbage on a write-once disk. Having an choice between Quick (just trash the filesystem structure) and Thorough (overwrite the whole disk) would be even better.

 

Of course, I could scratch the disk so it's not readable. I tried that before and the store clerk almost rejected my return. So that's not a good method.

Edited April 25, 2009 by Florin Andrei

[Night_Raven]

There is no way to write again to write-once media. Why else would be called write-once? It's like asking if there is a way to write Blu-ray discs in DVD-RW drives. Not possible.

[mmalves]

ImgBurn sends the quick/full erase command if you force it to, but your burner doesn't obey it and returns an error. If I recall correctly there are some Plextor burners capable of wiping a burned disc, do you happen to have a Plextor burner?

 

Next time get Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden blanks and you won't have problems with them

[Florin Andrei]

EDIT: I ended up scratching the used disk very discreetly. It should not be readable now (it wasn't very readable even before). The clerk at the store did not notice it.

 

There is no way to write again to write-once media. Why else would be called write-once? It's like asking if there is a way to write Blu-ray discs in DVD-RW drives. Not possible.

That's absurd. Of course it's possible, just something (software, firmware) prevents it, sensing that the media is written already. But it's not impossible in principle to write the media again, it's just a decision to prevent it, made by some component of the soft/hard chain. I was hoping there's a way to override it.

 

EDIT: I'm not saying "delete and write again the write-once media". I'm saying "just burn the heck out of it, regardless of what's already on it." I'm talking about a destructive operation. The end result is not a coherent data track, just a disk with no readable information on it. This should be entirely doable in principle, just spin the disk, turn on the laser, and destroy the data.

 

ImgBurn sends the quick/full erase command if you force it to, but your burner doesn't obey it and returns an error. If I recall correctly there are some Plextor burners capable of wiping a burned disc, do you happen to have a Plextor burner?

Ah, that's the explanation. The burner refuses to write again. Pretty silly limitation. The application (and, ultimately, the user) should make this decision.

 

No, I don't have a Plextor.

 

Next time get Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden blanks and you won't have problems with them

Verbatim is what I actually got this time after returning the bad disks. I'll see if it makes a difference.

 

Aren't Taiyo Yuden pretty expensive?

Edited April 25, 2009 by Florin Andrei

[mmalves]

I guess they should be around the same price as Verbatims

[Night_Raven]

EDIT: I'm not saying "delete and write again the write-once media". I'm saying "just burn the heck out of it, regardless of what's already on it." I'm talking about a destructive operation. The end result is not a coherent data track, just a disk with no readable information on it. This should be entirely doable in principle, just spin the disk, turn on the laser, and destroy the data.

If you want to destroy a disc, you can simply break it in half. There: problem solved. If you prefer a more fancy method, use your microwave oven. Since no burner is forever and every burn affects the drive's longevity more or less, I see no reason for me to waste my valuable burn cycles on an operation that can be done more easily and quickly another way.

Edited April 26, 2009 by Night_Raven

[Florin Andrei]

If you want to destroy a disc, you can simply break it in half. There: problem solved. If you prefer a more fancy method, use your microwave oven. Since no burner is forever and every burn affects the drive's longevity more or less, I see no reason for me to waste my valuable burn cycles on an operation that can be done more easily and quickly another way.

Those are valid points, unfortunately they don't address the specific situation described in my initial post.

[dontasciime]

The moral of this story is to stay away from so called Top name media eg( Sony) and buy better disc's in future.

[spinningwheel]

The moral of this story is to stay away from so called Top name media eg( Sony) and buy better disc's in future.

[Transient]

If you prefer a more fancy method, use your microwave oven.

 

The microwave method works quite well. If you turn the lights off, you'll even get a nice light show!

 

I don't think this is any worse than scratching the disc surface. Maybe you could convince the clerk that happened after putting them in your burner...

[blutach]

No need to say more - "It's a SONY". The people who brought you rootkits and ARccOS. Why support them?

 

Regards