BD RE DL format with spare areas fails (never ends)

[CharlieB]

System: Windows 7 64 bit on Intel DX58SO2 mb, Intel I7-970 CPU, and 8 GB memory.

Drive: Plextor PX-LB950UE with latest firmware (1.04) ESATA attachment.

Disk: Verbatim BD RE DL

 

I know the disk probably has defective tracks, as Full Erase with Prefer Format without Spare Areas enabled gets retries, but says it's successful. Later writing of an ISO image also gets retries, and Verify fails.

I want to format with Spare Areas to possibly get rid of the I/O errors, so I disabled Prefer Format Without Spare Areas, and started a full format.

 

Imgburn shows formatting disk "99% Complete" almost immediately, but the drive continues to cycle (I/O light blinks).

This continues INDEFINITELY (waited 3 hours).

The only way out is to shut down Windows or use Task Manager to kill Imgburn + power cycle the drive..

 

Log file:

I 18:12:53 Operation Started!

I 18:12:53 Device: [6:0:0] PLEXTOR BD-R PX-LB950UE 1.04 (Y:) (ATA)

I 18:12:53 Media Type: BD-RE (Disc ID: VERBAT-IM1-000)

I 18:12:53 Media Supported Write Speeds: 2x

I 18:12:53 Quick Erase: No

I 18:12:53 Format Properly: Yes

I 18:12:53 Format Size: Preferred

I 18:12:53 Format With Full Certification: Yes

I 18:12:53 Format Without Spare Areas: No

I 18:12:54 Erasing Disc...

[LIGHTNING UK!]

The format is an internal drive thing, so it's just your drive having a problem with the disc and getting stuck.

 

If you turn off file certification, it might actually finish the erase (quickly too), then you'd have to do a few full disc 'Discovery' mode burns on it to see if you can actually burn to all sectors without errors.