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The disk is now unrecognisable and a second attempt produced exactly the same error. The disk was OK immediately before the offending command, so it can hardly be damage. Is there another way to reformat a DVDRW? And what, if anything, did I do wrong?
The process of clearing a dvd-rw is called blanking.
Quote:
Blanking DVD-RW discs
Working with rewritable media is no different from working with ordinary DVD-R media aside from the obvious fact that every now and then you may want to erase the data on them and start over. From the DVD+RW-Tools package we get the dvd+rw-format command that does this for us. It has two modes that can be used when erasing discs, either quick or full mode. In most cases, a quick erase is enough, and this will only take a minute or two (depending on your recorder), compared to the full-erase mode, that takes about the same time as writing a full-size to the media. (Or even longer, depending on the recorder you are using)
To perform a quick format, issue the following command:
dvd+rw-format -blank /dev/dvd
And here is the syntax for erasing the entire disc:
Thanks for an excellent reply. I read the books, I use apropos, and there's still stuff in my distro I can't find ...
That might continue for years....
Slightly off-topic: I do not use re-writeable media (CD or DVD). The basic -R media is now pretty affordable, and I believe that it is more reliable than -RW.
I wrote too soon... Attemps to use either version of
dv+rw-format -blank
gave the reply that this was an illegal operation and the suggestion that I should use -force or -lead-out, neither of which worked. This is a dead disk.
If anyone wonders why I tried to blank the disk in the first place, rather than just overwriting, so do I -- I think decades of floppies must have generated a conditioned reflex.
As for using DVD+R and discarding, what's going to happen to all those discarded disks? Have the three Rs not reached you yet, pixellany? REPAIR RECYCLE REUSE!
I wrote too soon... Attemps to use either version of
dv+rw-format -blank
gave the reply that this was an illegal operation and the suggestion that I should use -force or -lead-out, neither of which worked. This is a dead disk.
If anyone wonders why I tried to blank the disk in the first place, rather than just overwriting, so do I -- I think decades of floppies must have generated a conditioned reflex.
As for using DVD+R and discarding, what's going to happen to all those discarded disks? Have the three Rs not reached you yet, pixellany? REPAIR RECYCLE REUSE!
I think this error only happens when you try to blank a dvd+rw disc with dvd+rw-format -blank command, I think this command only works for dvd-rw discs.
I have had just the same problem today and found you can use growisofs to zero fill the disc if needed.
In the unlikely event of anyone following this saga, the news is that the disk lives! Even though it was reported as unreadable by Linux, it could be written by Nautilus with no problem.
The moral may be that some of the old command-line utilities are just too old, and no longer compatible with the hardware.
Off topic but I thought the three R's were Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. On the topic (perhaps?) why will kubuntu K3 write a growisofs file but then it is not mountable by either konqueror or mount, no problem mounting with Mepis.
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