SOLVED DVD-RAM

[Cheemag]

Afternoon! I hope this is a reasonable Forum for this:

DVD-RAM discs written in Windows-7 are read-only in XP and read-write in Windows-7.

The same is true of re-writeable CDs.

Is there a way round this?

 

[TrainableMan]

What workaround are you after? We might be able to make them read-only in W7 also if you think that would help

I'm curious, have you actually tried the discs on a different W7 machine than you burned them on? The reason I ask is because I suspect you are not closing/finalizing the media; in which case I suspect you would have the same problem on a different W7 machine as well. If this is the case then it is likely a checkbox you need to select in your burn options.

 

[Cheemag]

What workaround are you after? We might be able to make them read-only in W7 also if you think that would help

I'm curious, have you actually tried the discs on a different W7 machine than you burned them on? The reason I ask is because I suspect you are not closing/finalizing the media; in which case I suspect you would have the same problem on a different W7 machine as well. If this is the case then it is likely a checkbox you need to select in your burn options.

I only have the one Windows 7 machine ...

Why would I want to finalise an RW/RAM disc? The whole point of those is that you are supposed to be able to use them like just like another disc drive - like a large, if rather slow flash drive - which Windows 7 supports.

XP on the other hand does not appear to be able to write to so-called UDF discs although it can read them.

I know this is a Win-7 forum, but I was curious about the XP compatibility.

 

[TrainableMan]

I believe it is working how it is supposed to work. If you want it to work in another machine I believe it must be finalized.

Even finalized RW disks can be wiped/formatted, basically they are burned down and it's like starting from scratch (except eventually they can't be burned down any further, so they are rewritable but it is still a finite amount of times; eventually they wear out. For a DVD-Ram I read this is amount is over 10,000 times).

I suggest having one set for each machine if you prefer to keep adding to the disk rather than formatting and finalizing each time. For files you wish to transfer back and forth maybe use a flash drive or network them together rather than non-finalized disks.

 

[draceena]

I have a CD-RW disc of useful computer files that I've burned on my W7 computer and my husband can take that disk on his computer with W7 and read and burn to it with no issues. I never tried to read/burn to the disc in my XP computer, guess I'll have to give it a try

 

[TrainableMan]

I have a CD-RW disc of useful computer files that I've burned on my W7 computer and my husband can take that disk on his computer with W7 and read and burn to it with no issues. I never tried to read/burn to the disc in my XP computer, guess I'll have to give it a try

Do you close/finalize it?

 

[Cheemag]

I believe it is working how it is supposed to work. If you want it to work in another machine I believe it must be finalized.

Possibly, but there is no point in finalising a disc which you hope to add to/delete from etc later!

Even finalized RW disks can be wiped/formatted, basically they are burned down and it's like starting from scratch (except eventually they can't be burned down any further, so they are rewritable but it is still a finite amount of times; eventually they wear out. For a DVD-Ram I read this is amount is over 10,000 times).

Yes, I realise that. It's one solution.

I suggest having one set for each machine if you prefer to keep adding to the disk rather than formatting and finalizing each time. For files you wish to transfer back and forth maybe use a flash drive or network them together rather than non-finalized disks.

Yes, OK, except that XP can read from but not write to re-writeable media. I doubt if XP could even format a UDF disc, and even if it could, it would probably not be readable on a Windows 7 machine. I must experiment with this.

One possible, but very undesirable option is to install InCD on the XP machine, but this has the unfortunate side-effect that any disc that has not been formatted by InCD (e.g. a Win-7 disc) will instantly be made read-only 'in order to protect your data' !! as InCD thinks the disc is corrupt.

I have the two machines networked, so it isn't a problem, just a conundrum!

 

[Cheemag]

I have a CD-RW disc of useful computer files that I've burned on my W7 computer and my husband can take that disk on his computer with W7 and read and burn to it with no issues. I never tried to read/burn to the disc in my XP computer, guess I'll have to give it a try

There's no problem between Windows 7 machines. Likely you will have problems with XP. Although it's supposed to be able to format re-writeable media, and presumably use them, (format f: /fs: fat32) this fails on my machine (XP Home SP-2) with the error 'Cannot format. This volume is write-protected' with a perfectly good quality new, blank CD-RW in the drive.

 

[Cheemag]

I could not find this post on the forum, so I've quoted it from the EMail:

"Here is the message that has just been posted:
***************
DVD-RAM is one of three competing technologies for rewritable DVDs. Its competitors are DVD+RW and DVD-RW. DVD-RAM technology provides excellent data integrity, data retention and damage protection through a number of mechanisms and properties. Therefore, DVD-RAM is perceived by some people to be better than the other DVD technologies for traditional computer usage tasks such as general data storage, and especially data backup and archival.
***************"
DVD-RAM seems to be generally more reliable than CD/DVD*RW, but is inordinately slow!

My version of XP will not format or write to any form of rewriteable disc. However, that isn't a problem for a Windows 7 forum.

Thanks to all who replied - I'll mark this solved.