[Debburn-devel] dvd+rw-format, DVD-RW media, wodim errors, unusable disk.

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

> something posessed me to run dvd+rw-format 
> ...
> Now the tools wodim & growisofs fail all write operations with errors,

It is normal that wodim or cdrecord do not handle
formatted DVD-RW.
It is not so normal that growisofs cannot write
to them. But it is regrettably quite normal that
DVD-RW in general fail to work properly.

Did you try to deformat it by this command ?

  dvd+rw-format -blank=full /dev/...

(It runs as long as a full write.)

Theory background (see also MMC specs):
DVD-RW can have one of two media states
- sequential, can do multi-session,
  needs blanking before re-use
- overwriteable ("restricted overwrite"),
  is like DVD-RAM or DVD+RW, needs no blanking.
DVD-RW are sold in sequential state.
By dvd+rw-format you brought it into overwriteable
state.i
dvd+rw-format -blank will make it sequential again.

The poor drive-media compatibility of DVD-RW has
annoyed me with four burner devices meanwhile.
When the burners are young, then they can handle
4x DVD-RW. But after a few months they 
go partly blind and only do old 2x DVD-RW.
Burners from LG, NEC, Philips, Samsung.

I really do prefer DVD+RW for any non-development
purpose.

-----------

> > Are there any sightings of systems with /dev/scd*
> > but no /dev/sr* ?
> I'm using Knoppix v5.3.1, and there are /dev/scd* block device nodes, but
> /dev/sr* are soft links to the real block device nodes.

I rather expected true sr and linked scd.
But your system would nevertheless stand a switch
from scd to sr.

> I do not know either way if one is preferred or the other
> being deprecated.

We not-knowers obviously are quite a crowd. :))


Have a nice day :)

Thomas