Unable to format BD-RE 50GB

[colinhunt]

Hello,

 

I've got an odd issue with a Panasonic 50GB BD-RE disc: I can't format it for re-use.

 

This might have some bearing on the issue: before writing on a BD-RE disc for the very first time, I need to format all my BD-RE media first with Nero 8, then for a second time with ImgBurn. If I skip formatting by Nero 8, ImgBurn claims the disc is not empty. After that, a quick format by ImgBurn is enough -- though some Philips BD-RE media needs to be re-formatted with Nero 8 every now and then, and I've been forced to do a Full format on a couple of discs too.

 

I haven't ticked the box "Prefer Format Without Spare Areas", but I have ticked the "DVD-RAM / BD-RE FastWrite" box.

 

I have two BD drives, a Panasonic LF-MB121 and an LG GGW-H20L, both with latest available firmware. I've tried formatting the 50GB disc on both; tried both quick and full formats as well. The disc has been written on only once; with ImgBurn 2.4.0.0, and it performed flawlessly.

 

Earlier today I needed to empty the disc and burn something else on it. I did a quick format with ImgBurn, and was surprised to see a pop-up window, displaying a number of media types and asking me to select one. I don't remember seeing such a pop-up before. Anyway, I chose BD-RE and clicked OK. Format appeared to pass without problems, but afterwards ImgBurn displayed a "Disc Not Empty" status message.

 

Closed ImgBurn, ran Nero 8 and tried to do a quick format, but this popped up:

 

HL-DT-ST BD-RE GGW-H20L:

This disc in not rewritable and therefore cannot be erased.

Please insert a rewritable disc.

 

Next I ran Panasonic's WPTool to see if the disc had somehow been write-protected. The app reported "An invalid disc is inserted." Panasonic's DVDForm tool claims the disc is "Unsupported".

 

This happens to be my only 50GB BD-Re and I'd really hate to lose it. Any advice is heartily appreciated.

 

thanks,

:: colin

[LIGHTNING UK!]

That window pops up when the drive isn't reporting nice info (the 'current profile') for the disc.

 

Put it in the drive and copy + paste all the disc related info from the window on the right.

[colinhunt]

Disc Information:

Status: Complete

Erasable: Yes

Supported Write Speeds: 2x

 

TOC Information:

Session 1...

-> Track 01 (Mode 1, LBA: 0 - 23652351)

-> LeadOut (LBA: 23652352)

 

BD Disc Information:

Disc ID: MEI-T01-01

Disc Type: BD-RE

 

Current Format Capacity:

Sectors: 23 652 352

Size: 48 440 016 896 bytes

Time: 5256:06:52 (MM:SS:FF)

 

Preferred Format Capacity:

Sectors: 23 652 352

Size: 48 440 016 896 bytes

Time: 5256:06:52 (MM:SS:FF)

 

Maximum Format Capacity:

Sectors: 24 438 784

Size: 50 050 629 632 bytes

Time: 5430:52:34 (MM:SS:FF)

[colinhunt]

Arf, omitted first two lines:

 

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

Current Profile: BD-RE

[colinhunt]

Whoa, this is bit weird. I closed down ImgBurn, then ran it again with the disc already in the drive. This time I got different info:

 

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

Current Profile: BD-ROM

 

Disc Information:

Status: Complete

Erasable: No

Sessions: 1

Sectors: 23 652 352

Size: 48 440 016 896 bytes

Time: 5256:06:52 (MM:SS:FF)

Supported Write Speeds: 2x

 

TOC Information:

Session 1...

-> Track 01 (Mode 1, LBA: 0 - 23652351)

-> LeadOut (LBA: 23652352)

 

BD Disc Information:

Disc ID: MEI-T01-01

Disc Type: BD-RE

 

 

 

If I take the disc out and run ImgBurn first, and *then* insert the media, I get the info I posted previously. Funny, that.

[colinhunt]

Curiouser and curiouser... If I try to format the disc while "Current profile BD-RE" is displayed, I still get the pop-up window asking for media type. If I click Cancel, the information is changed to "Current profile BD-ROM".

[mmalves]

And what does it show when you put that disc in your Panasonic burner?

[colinhunt]

Seems the disc has already been written to.

 

Status is complete and there 48Gb of data there.

Certainly it has. I mentioned that in my initial post. It's been written to, but only once, using ImgBurn. I'm trying to empty/format it now.

[blutach]

Sorry - my bad. I see the drive is sometimes recognising it as BD-ROM (not rerwritable?) and BD-RE (which would allow you to reformat).

 

Regards

[colinhunt]

Ran ImgBurn first, then inserted media into Panasonic drive, which reports:

 

MATSHITA BD-MLT LF-MB121 BD03 (USB)

Current Profile: BD-ROM

 

Disc Information:

Status: Complete

Erasable: No

Sessions: 1

Sectors: 23 652 352

Size: 48 440 016 896 bytes

Time: 5256:06:52 (MM:SS:FF)

Supported Write Speeds: 2x

 

TOC Information:

Session 1...

-> Track 01 (Mode 1, LBA: 0 - 23652351)

-> LeadOut (LBA: 23652352)

 

BD Disc Information:

Disc ID: MEI-T01-01

Disc Type: BD-RE

 

 

Inserting disc before running ImgBurn gives the same result.

[colinhunt]

Sorry - my bad. I see the drive is sometimes recognising it as BD-ROM (not rerwritable?) and BD-RE (which would allow you to reformat).

Yup, that's what LG is doing. However, the pop-up window for media type still appears even when it reports the media as BD-RE. Something's quite wonky with this media...

[LIGHTNING UK!]

The current profile info visible in that text is only used for that text.

 

Before the erase operation starts, the command is issued again.

 

It's weird that the drive would keep changing it's mind like that.

 

Do you have any special software installed for burning/formatting BD discs? ie. anything that came with either of the drives?

 

I haven't gotten around to buying any BD DL media for my H20L yet... maybe I should and we can compare results.

[colinhunt]

Do you have any special software installed for burning/formatting BD discs? ie. anything that came with either of the drives?

If there was a disc with LG, it's now vanished into the black hole otherwise known as this room. Panny came with DVDForm which refuses to recognize the disc.

 

I haven't gotten around to buying any BD DL media for my H20L yet... maybe I should and we can compare results.

DL RE media is stupidly expensive which is why I have only one. It would be good to compare results, certainly. The donation I made a while back isn't enough to cover that cost, however... maybe I should donate a bit more

[colinhunt]

A couple of questions sprang to mind.

 

1) How come Nero 8 and ImgBurn seem to format BD-RE discs differently?

2) ...and what's the difference?

3) Any chance of ImgBurn having a bug which results in BD-RE 50GB media being formatted incorrectly, resulting in a disc which appears as BD-ROM?

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Nero doesn't wait for the 'full format' to finish, I do. On BD-RE, I then write zeroes to all the sectors to make sure they're totally blank. (The DVD+RW full format seems to do this anyway).

 

BD-RE and BD-RE DL share the same 'format' command. I see nothing in the MMC specs saying otherwise.

[colinhunt]

BD-RE and BD-RE DL share the same 'format' command. I see nothing in the MMC specs saying otherwise.

OK. The reason I asked is quite simple: the disc was working, then I ran ImgBurn's Quick Format on it, after which the disc was borked. It's certainly just as likely that the drive malfunctioned. I don't actually care much about how it happened -- I'd much rather see a solution so I could use the disc again.

 

Dunno if this info has any bearing on the matter, but... I've got some BD-RE 25GB media (Philips) which can't be formatted with ImgBurn's Quick Format. ImgBurn says the formatting went through OK, but then it reports that the disc is not empty. I usually get round this by running Nero 8's Quick Format on the disc, followed by ImgBurn's Quick Format. A couple of times that didn't help and I had to run ImgBurn's Full format on the disc.

[mmalves]

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

[LIGHTNING UK!]

A quick format on BD-RE is just it writing zeros to the first 800 sectors.

 

It's very pointless as writing the image would do that anyway (only it would use real data and not zeroes).

[colinhunt]

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

I knew that about +RW and RAM, but not about BD-RE. Thanks for the tip. Too bad it's of no help with this current problem I'm having...

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Just so I know we're on the same page still, the current problem is that your drive keeps changing it's mind and saying the current profile is BD-ROM one minute and BD-RE the next - all without you actually doing anything except maybe ejecting / reinserting the disc?

[colinhunt]

Just so I know we're on the same page still, the current problem is that your drive keeps changing it's mind and saying the current profile is BD-ROM one minute and BD-RE the next - all without you actually doing anything except maybe ejecting / reinserting the disc?

Not quite. Panasonic drive reports BD-ROM no matter what I do.

 

I can 'fool' the LG drive into reporting BD-RE by having the disc in the drive when I run ImgBurn, but when I try to format the disc (or perform any operation) LG sees it as a BD-ROM (apparently) and ImgBurn asks for media type. I've scoured the net for BD applications and none of them are able to format this particular disc.

 

Alcohol 120% gave me a glimpse of hope. It refused to format the disc at first, but I ejected and reinserted disc and it actually started formatting.. only to stop a couple of seconds later, saying the disc is not compatible with operation, or something along those lines.

[mmalves]

When you try a full erase with ImgBurn, what's displayed in the Log window? Can you copy those lines and paste in a new post for us, please?

Have you tried enabling Prefer Format Without Spare Areas and then trying a full erase?

[LIGHTNING UK!]

It asking you to confirm the disc type isn't a huge problem. All you need to do is pick BD-RE and i'll run the appropriate code.

 

The problem is what happens after that.

[colinhunt]

When you try a full erase with ImgBurn, what's displayed in the Log window? Can you copy those lines and paste in a new post for us, please?

I'll try that in a while; need to finish another burn first.

 

Have you tried enabling Prefer Format Without Spare Areas and then trying a full erase?

No, not yet. Full erase takes forever and a day but I'll give it a shot soonish.

 

Should I have Fastwrite enabled or not? Could that have any effect on the matter?

[dontasciime]

enable fastwrite regardless and do the full format and go paint your house