Formatting a BD-R taking ages

[nwg]

I am about to get into burning BD and put in a BD-RE (25GB). I am copying over a BD ISO and the program wanted to format the disc first. I thought that was normal with a new unused disc so it is curently doing. The problem is it has been doing formattin for 90 minutes and only on 25% completed.

 

It this normal as I was expecting it to take only a few minutes.

 

Is there anyway to cancel without ruining the disc?

[LIGHTNING UK!]

A full format takes ages.

 

The drive has its own formatting process that takes a couple of hours, then ImgBurn writes zeroes to every sector. That part will take longer if you don't have fast write enabled as you'll be stuck at 1x or something instead of 2x.

 

So all in all, it'll take about 3 - 4 hours.

[nwg]

A full format takes ages.

 

The drive has its own formatting process that takes a couple of hours, then ImgBurn writes zeroes to every sector. That part will take longer if you don't have fast write enabled as you'll be stuck at 1x or something instead of 2x.

 

So all in all, it'll take about 3 - 4 hours.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. Looks I need to let it finish. Where is this fast write enabled bit and I assume it won't do this format again for the disc.

[mmalves]

Tools -> Settings -> Write tab -> DVD-RAM / BD-RE FastWrite (*)

With FastWrite enabled be sure to Verify your burns

[nwg]

Tools -> Settings -> Write tab -> DVD-RAM / BD-RE FastWrite (*)

With FastWrite enabled be sure to Verify your burns

 

 

It has started burning and very slowly. The write rate is 0.2x and keeps changing.

Edited December 5, 2008 by nwg

[nwg]

It got stuck on 0x so I cancelled and erased it (took 15 seconds) and enabled fast write. It is now burning at 2.3x.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

The quick erase just writes zeroes to the first 800 sectors or so... that's why it's fast

[nwg]

The disc burned ok in just 40 minutes but doesn't work in the bd players I have (one stutters and one saids no disc). From what I have found out is it seems the LG RE discs that come ith the GGW H20 drives are not too good.

Edited December 6, 2008 by nwg

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Correct, they're junk.

 

As with most things optical disc related these days, Verbatim ones are the best and they work just fine in my own H20L.

[nwg]

Correct, they're junk.

 

As with most things optical disc related these days, Verbatim ones are the best and they work just fine in my own H20L.

 

 

The disc will still be useful for storing 25GB of data. Unfortunately, Verbatim ones are too expensive (

[nwg]

I got the TDK BD-RE and they are much better. It formats in 39 minutes and burned 22GB in 39 minutes. It plays perfectly on my BD players.

 

I also did a burn on a Traxdata BD-R at 4x and took just 20 minutes. It was doing it at 1GB per minute !!!!

 

That Fast write setting made all the difference.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

FastWrite should only really matter to BD-RE. Your BD-R should always burn at their rated speed.

 

To be honest, it's not ideal having it switched on as technically it's writing in 'streaming' mode (where data can be skipped if the drive can't keep up). With streaming enabled you really need to be using ImgBurn's verify after burn feature.

 

You'd be better off formatting the BD-RE without spare areas (another option in the settings!) which basically disables the drive from doing Write + Verify for every Write command I send it too... only this time it's because without the spare areas there's no room for the drive to automatically reallocate damaged sectors to and hence it doesn't bother with its own internal verification part.

[nwg]

I have always wondered about verify. I don't really see the point as it not like the BD-R can be redone.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

It depends on if the data is important or not I guess.

 

A miscompare or error on a video is probably no big deal but if I was backing up data, I'd want to know it could be read back afterwards without any errors!

[nwg]

It depends on if the data is important or not I guess.

 

A miscompare or error on a video is probably no big deal but if you're backing up data, I'd want to know it could be read back afterwards without any errors!

 

My data is video only so as long as it plays in a bd player is all that matters. It is more important as I just did a verify on the LG disc which passed but no good to me in my players. I decided to do a verify anyway on the TDK BD-RE I just burned and that passed as well.

 

If I have fast write off what speed would the BD-RE 2x speed write at? I cancelled before the burning started before. I suspect it might be 1x.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Passing verify just means it'll play / read ok in the drive you verified in.... I guess it works both ways sometimes. ie. the disc might fail to read back in that drive but will work fine in another drive, or it'll work fine in that drive and fail to read back in another one.

 

A 2x BD-RE with spare areas enabled and fastwrite enabled would probably write at 1.9x - 2.1x.

A 2x BD-RE with spare areas enabled and fastwrite disabled would probably write at 0.9x - 1.1x.

 

A 2x BD-RE with spare areas disabled and fastwrite enabled would probably write at 1.9x - 2.1x.

A 2x BD-RE with spare areas disabled and fastwrite disabled would probably write at 1.9x - 2.1x.

 

Turning off spare areas is a better approach than turning on FastWrite - of course it does mean repeating the entire format process again though

Not only that, with spare areas disabled you get to use more of the disc for actual data.

[nwg]

So would you enable fast write to get a 40 minute format instead of 4+ hours then turn it off when actually burning a BD-RE. Then, also have prefer format without spare areas enabled for all burns to max out the burning capacity? I want to be able to get the 23.3GB capacity if I need to.

Edited December 7, 2008 by nwg

[nwg]

FastWrite doesn't affect the format process, which, by the way, only needs to be done once when the disc is brand new, or if you change the state of the 'Prefer Format Without Spare Areas' option.

 

? That is not what LIGHTNING UK said at the beginning. I know it only needs to be done once (just like a +RW). With it disabled the LG disc took something like 4.5 hours and with it enabled the TDK formatted in 40 minutes.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

ImgBurn's full format process writes zeroes to all the sectors, so if spare areas are enabled, the fastwrite option WILL speed it up (but only on the 2nd part of the format - the zero filling, the 1st is done by the drive itself)

 

If spare areas are disabled then the program should be zeroing those sectors at 2x or whatever without the need for you to enable fastwrite.

 

As mmalves said, the full format only needs to be done once (or if you change the 'spare areas' option).

 

You can see the difference in size by looking at the preferred and maximum format capacities in the disc info on the right.

[nwg]

Another formatting question. I formatted a BD 50 in 80 minutes with spare areas on. I tried to burn 46.6GB and the disc was not big enough. I reformatted with spare areas off and it finished formatting after 3 hours then started again. This second time it will complete a format in 80 minutes like before. Is it normal to format twice? It should start burning soon.

Edited December 12, 2008 by nwg

[LIGHTNING UK!]

I'm sure I mentioned before that the format is a 2 part process.

 

The first is done by the drive and the % complete is read from the drive - ImgBurn just polls it every second.

 

The second is ImgBurn writing zeroes to all the sectors because the bit done by the drive doesn't appear to do that (unlike when formatting DVD+RW).

 

So yes, the % complete would count up twice.

[nwg]

I remember but the first time I formatted using spare areas on, the percentage just goes up once and took 40 minutes. It then went straight to burning.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Maybe the drive part finished really quickly then and all you had to wait for was the ImgBurn bit.

[nwg]

Still the percentage only went up the one time.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

That's to be expected if the drive bit finishes instantly.