Darkfalz Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 When I pop a brand new DVD+RW into the drive, here's what happens. I go to format it, and it blinks on and off for a few seconds (maybe 20 seconds), then stops. At this point I have to cancel the program (I used to use Alcohol 120%). After that, formatting works. The way I know it's working is that the light doesn't blink, it stays on the whole time. I thought this may be a bug in Alcohol 120%, but ImgBurn does the same thing. First time, blink blink and then stops, and ImgBurn is waiting for something that's never going to happen. So I force crash it. Second time, it works (light stays on). Can anyone explain to me what's going on here? SONY DW-D18A (OEM DRU700) and standard DVD+RW media (two different brands, same thing). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Movie Junkie Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 Have you been able to format the RW discs before? What media brands have you tried? The drive is an older model. Have you checked to make sure you have the latest firmware? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkfalz Posted March 18, 2006 Author Share Posted March 18, 2006 (edited) Also I get this same blinking for a few seconds then stopping when I go to erase full with ImgBurn. However, when I erase full with Alcohol 120% it works. Edited March 18, 2006 by Darkfalz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkfalz Posted March 18, 2006 Author Share Posted March 18, 2006 Okay, it seems this was my fault. It was formatting. It blinks for a few seconds then the light goes out, but it continues formatting without the LED on. Lo and behold 15 minutes later it completed and started to write the file. I was confused all this time because it seems like it just dies. Forgive me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polopony Posted March 19, 2006 Share Posted March 19, 2006 Absolvo te a peccatis tuis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Movie Junkie Posted March 19, 2006 Share Posted March 19, 2006 Absolvo te a peccatis tuisThat's nice of you to absolve him of his sins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted March 19, 2006 Share Posted March 19, 2006 Bless me, Father, for I have a gun! This is my first confession since, well, never! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynthia Posted March 19, 2006 Share Posted March 19, 2006 Okay, it seems this was my fault. It was formatting. It blinks for a few seconds then the light goes out, but it continues formatting without the LED on. Lo and behold 15 minutes later it completed and started to write the file. I was confused all this time because it seems like it just dies. Forgive me. It's one of the new features in the latest release. No quick formatting on +RW discs no more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LIGHTNING UK! Posted March 19, 2006 Share Posted March 19, 2006 There's no such thing as quick formatting a DVD+RW, a disc is either registered as formatted or it's not. I do not like to leave things in limbo so I ensure it's done the full thing at least once. After that, it won't bother you again as DVD+RW supports direct overwrite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkfalz Posted March 21, 2006 Author Share Posted March 21, 2006 Indeed many of my DVD+RW were "In process" of formatting (even though I'd used them a few times). Now they are all properly formatted. A bit weird behaviour of the drive though, with the LED going off while formatting. So it has three modes Blinking - writing DVD+R On - writing DVD+RW Blinking then off - formatting DVD+RW Weird. But I'm glad now I know what's going on and that my drive works as it should. It's amazing to think so many tiny phase change crystals packed onto one disc, and how many millions are written every second! Sometimes if you think hard enough about it technology blows your mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LIGHTNING UK! Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 DVD+RW formatting is a 2 stage process. Foreground and background. The foreground bit is obvious to the user (and also to a program), the background bit is done differently by every drive. Some show activity (by flashing the LED), some do not. It's totally down to the manufacturer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HEKPOMAH Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 Hi all! DVD+RW formatting is a 2 stage process. Foreground and background. The foreground bit is obvious to the user (and also to a program), the background bit is done differently by every drive. Some show activity (by flashing the LED), some do not. It's totally down to the manufacturer. On my current drives - Sony DW-22A (Lite-On SOHW 1633) and Sony GW-121A format take about 15-20min.! LED turned off during formatting. I have writte plenty of disks and dozens of DVD+RW's on Sony and LG GSA-4163B drives using mkisofs + cdrecord or BURNCDCC and never didn't care about "formatting". And never got error on writing or further reading of this disks. So I think that time consuming "formatting" procedure is simply useless. Especially mysterious "background" stage which uses 95% of total formatting time and doubles-triples total disk writing time (12min. at 4x). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenadjian Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 You should really pass your concerns to disc/drive manufacturers, it's their design that dictates what and how things should happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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