what goes on during DVD+RW format?

[rscottdrysdale]

I'm playing with my new DVD burner, burning some TV shows to DVD for a friend with DVDFlick, which includes ImgBurn.

 

Works great!

 

I am curious about what goes on during a format operation on an as-yet-unused DVD+RW. It takes a long time:

 

I 01:18:10 ImgBurn Version 2.4.2.0 started!

I 01:18:10 Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional (5.0, Build 2195 : Service Pack 4)

I 01:18:10 Total Physical Memory: 522,736 KB - Available: 190,596 KB

I 01:18:10 Initialising SPTI...

I 01:18:10 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...

I 01:18:10 Found 1 DVD

[LIGHTNING UK!]

I'm pretty sure you'll find it is spinning and it'll be writing zeroes to all the sectors.

 

This isn't something ImgBurn is actually doing, it just sends the 1 'format disc' command and the drive takes care of the rest.

[rscottdrysdale]

I'm pretty sure you'll find it is spinning and it'll be writing zeroes to all the sectors.

 

This isn't something ImgBurn is actually doing, it just sends the 1 'format disc' command and the drive takes care of the rest.

 

i understand that you're just waiting for a command to complete. but the drive is dead silent during the 15 minutes and the light is off. i'd expect it to be spinning pretty fast (8x) if it's hitting 4.3G in 15 minutes. it's audible during 4x writes.

 

also the media is supposed to be 4x max write. is formatting an exception to the max write speed?

 

is it possible that my drive does some kind of lazy format, or is what i'm observing typical?

 

not that any of this is a big deal, i just find it odd.

 

$$$ will be forthcoming next wednesday!

Edited March 24, 2009 by rscottdrysdale

[LIGHTNING UK!]

It's down to the manufacturer if it makes the drive light flash during a format, most do not.

 

15 mins is normal for a 4x burn (or in this case, erase/format)

 

I guess the best test is to burn something to the disc, then do a full format and see if the sectors are all zeroed out or not.