# dvd burn error mean dvdrw is bad?

## ccosse

Hi, I just bought a used dvdrw and simultaneously upgraded my system.  But 2x burning applications have now failed (thrown errors) while trying to burn a dvd.  It can burn cdroms just fine, just not dvds.  First I tried bashburn, now the gnome cdcreator program.   The gnome program said: 

```
Cannot reserve track of 56197120 bytes 

(brasero_burn_record burn.c:2599)
```

It threw the exact same error with 2 separate new blank dvds, so it's not the dvd.  Can anyone say, based on this, if the dvd burner is bad?

Thanks

Charles

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## lysergicacid

couldnt say for a fact but, ive had several dvdrw's that the dvd part of the drive has packed in while it could still read and write cd's usually happens to me with pioneer drives, test if it can read dvd's too.

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## ccosse

Thanks for your reply ... it can read dvds ... it's in my Dell M70 laptop ... here's the type:

```
Vendor                      : _NEC    

Model                       : DVD+-RW ND-6500A

```

I think the problem is with the drive ... guess will have to do the whole post office thing ... ugh ... 

So, thanks again -

Charles

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## lysergicacid

you could try rebooting to windows (yes i know ewwww / if u have dual boot) & test if it works in that 2. I presume the gnome writing prog dragged app-cdr/dvd+rw-tools onto your system too ofc and u have dvd and dvdrw as use flags in either make.conf or package.use ?

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## NeddySeagoon

ccosse,

Can it UDF format a brand new piece of DVD+RW media ?

You will be able to see the format at the inside of the disk if it worked and use CP to add thngs to the disk.

The format will stop after < 2% of the media is formatted - thats normal but you can still use it all.

Previously written media will not show the boundary mark between written/unwritten media.

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## ccosse

 *lysergicacid wrote:*   

> you could try rebooting to windows (yes i know ewwww / if u have dual boot) & test if it works in that 2. I presume the gnome writing prog dragged app-cdr/dvd+rw-tools onto your system too ofc and u have dvd and dvdrw as use flags in either make.conf or package.use ?

 

lysergicacid, unfortunately my spare windows harddrive doesn't have burning software on it ... so wasn't able to confirm what happens there.  I do have all the USE flags and drivers availalbe ... I think it must be the hardware.

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## ccosse

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> ccosse,
> 
> Can it UDF format a brand new piece of DVD+RW media ?
> 
> You will be able to see the format at the inside of the disk if it worked and use CP to add thngs to the disk.
> ...

 

Hi NeddySeagoon,  here's the uncertain output when I try to format a blank dvd:

```

+----------------+

| BashBurn 2.1.2 |

+----------------+

|

|-(Data Menu)

| 1) Burn Data

| 2) Copy Data CD (CD to CD)

| 3) Burn Data DVD

| 4) Format CDRW

| 5) Format DVD

| 0) Back

|

Your Choice? [0-5] |> 5

Fast or total blanking?

Enter yes for fast,

or no for a total formatting.

Enter [ENTER] without entering anything

To cancel the operation.

(yes/no):no

* BD/DVD±RW/-RAM format utility by <appro@fy.chalmers.se>, version 7.1.

:-( mounted media doesn't appear to be DVD±RW, DVD-RAM or Blu-ray

Blanking was not successful. You should replace this cd.

Press [ENTER] to continue.

```

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## NeddySeagoon

ccosse,

The command I had in mind was 

```
dvd+rw-format /dev/dvd
```

Which I should have given in my previous post.

You need DVD+RW media in the drive for this to work.  There is some useful history as well as the current staye of play of optical storage on Linux.

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## ccosse

NeddySeagoon, here's what that yielded:

```
* BD/DVD±RW/-RAM format utility by <appro@fy.chalmers.se>, version 7.1.

:-( mounted media doesn't appear to be DVD±RW, DVD-RAM or Blu-ray

```

So, the first time I issued that I actually had a cdrom still in the drive ... (i was just checking if the cmd was even recognized on my system b/c i never used it) ... anyway, it thought about it for a sec, and queried the device i suppose, and then gave exactly the message above.  Then i switched to a blank dvd and the command gave exactly the same result, but without "thinking" about it ... ie returned pretty fast.   So now, even if i eject and reload the drive it returns the above quickly.  That's about the only clue i have.  I did send-off an email to the ebay dude where it came from.  My dvds are Maxell DVD-R ... and my desktop drive burns to them no problem.   This drive says R/RW so that's okay.  The command doesn't appear to take many args to probe the drive ... there's probably a suite of similar progs with that dvd+rw-format is part of ... i'll check that and see if any other progs from the suite ...

```

charlie # /usr/bin/dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/cdrom

INQUIRY:                [_NEC    ][DVD+-RW ND-6500A][202C]

GET [CURRENT] CONFIGURATION:

 Mounted Media:         11h, DVD-R Sequential

 Media ID:              RITEKF1     

GET [CURRENT] PERFORMANCE:

 Write Performance:     1.0x1385=1352KB/s@[0 -> 2297888]

:-( empty GET PERFORMACE descriptor

READ DVD STRUCTURE[#10h]:

 Media Book Type:       00h, DVD-ROM book [revision 0]

 Legacy lead-out at:    2298496*2KB=4707319808

READ DVD STRUCTURE[#0h]:

 Media Book Type:       25h, DVD-R book [revision 5]

 Last border-out at:    2045*2KB=4188160

READ DISC INFORMATION:

 Disc status:           blank

 Number of Sessions:    1

 State of Last Session: empty

 "Next" Track:          1

 Number of Tracks:      1

READ TRACK INFORMATION[#1]:

 Track State:           invisible incremental

 Track Start Address:   0*2KB

 Next Writable Address: 0*2KB

 Free Blocks:           2297888*2KB

 Track Size:            2297888*2KB

READ CAPACITY:          0*2048=0

```

How about the READ DISK INFO section -- are those 1s alright?

Thanks!

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## ccosse

Now it just stopped burning cdroms even.  Case closed.  Thanks guys for your help.

```

 83.12% done, estimate finish Sat Jan  9 22:19:23 2010

 85.31% done, estimate finish Sat Jan  9 22:19:24 2010

 87.49% done, estimate finish Sat Jan  9 22:19:23 2010

 89.68% done, estimate finish Sat Jan  9 22:19:24 2010

 91.86% done, estimate finish Sat Jan  9 22:19:24 2010

 94.05% done, estimate finish Sat Jan  9 22:19:24 2010

 96.24% done, estimate finish Sat Jan  9 22:19:24 2010

 98.43% done, estimate finish Sat Jan  9 22:19:26 2010

Total translation table size: 0

Total rockridge attributes bytes: 486

Total directory bytes: 0

Path table size(bytes): 10

Done with: The File(s)                             Block(s)    228425

Writing:   Ending Padblock                         Start Block 228456

Done with: Ending Padblock                         Block(s)    150

Max brk space used 0

228606 extents written (446 MB)

Not enabling overburn...

CD seems to already be written to. Do you wish to blank it?

Only answer 'yes' if the media is a rewritable disk. Enter

'abort' if you wish to cancel and return to the menu.

(yes/no/abort) |> abort

Aborting...

Press [ENTER] to continue.

```

And also tried answering "yes" instead of "abort" to above and it failed the subsequent stuff.  So, bad drive.

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## NeddySeagoon

ccosse,

The command I gave you only works on RW media, not R and I've only ever used it on +RW

----------

