Technical issues: my computer can't read a DVD-R full of data, how do I format it to do so?

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It's quite an old computer, about four years old. Other computers can read the discs perfectly well. The gentleman at the computer repair shop wants to charge me £20 for what I'm sure is a perfectly simple operation, does anyone know how I might do it myself?

― darren sobers, Wednesday, 17 November 2004 11:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm assuming your computer has a DVD drive on it, yes? If not, that's the problem right there. If your computer is older, the chance is that you've got an older DVD drive that may not be compatible with the new DVD writeable formats.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

er, does the computer have a dvd drive in it? can the computer read other dvd-rs?

that said, there are lots of different dvd formats (dvd-r, dvd+r, dvd ram etc) so you need to be careful. and if it's a rewritable dvd then it's even worse.

(sorry for the remdial questions but the above's not really enough to go on, or to know at what level to pitch my own questions)

― koogs (koogs), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 12:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Seems like either a hardware problem or a disc problem. Either way, it's probably not something that you can "format" away. (What exactly did you mean by format? Format your hard drive? Not a good idea for this one...)

― Girolamo Savonarola, Wednesday, 17 November 2004 12:46 (twenty-one years ago)

i have a dvd drive that plays dvd video fine. it's the first time i've attempted to read a dvd-r with this computer. i employ the term "format" as it was employed by the gentleman in the computer repairs shop, i assumed i only ned tweak the setup of the dvd drive to allow it to read the dvd-r.
as mention before, the dvd-r's have worked perfectly well on other computers.

― darren sobers, Thursday, 18 November 2004 12:00 (twenty-one years ago)

FWIW, the Philips DVD drive that came with my Fujitsu-Siemens PC (2001 vintage) could read some prerecorded video discs but struggled with DVD-Rs and DVD-ROMs. I eventually replaced it with a cheap LG drive from Dixons. This may not be the compatibility problem you seem to be having but rather just a duff drive.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 18 November 2004 12:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, some older drives made before the recordable formats existed have problems with some formats (eg. some will read DVD- OK but not DVD+ and vice-versa)

If you buy a new cheapo DVD rom it should read everything (even better take the opportunity to spend a little more and buy a DVD writer - Just 45 pounds will buy you a model that will write a Dual-layer DVD (+ or - formats) in about 10 minutes - that's 8 gigabytes)

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Thursday, 18 November 2004 12:10 (twenty-one years ago)

You may be able to update the firmware on your DVD drive to allow it to read DVD-Rs check the drive manufacturers website.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Thursday, 18 November 2004 12:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I was advised that my quite aged computr would not be able to handle a dvd writer.doe sthat sound likely, or wwas the computer man a pessimist?

― darren sobers, Thursday, 18 November 2004 12:26 (twenty-one years ago)

...possibly. Do you have any specs?

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Thursday, 18 November 2004 13:33 (twenty-one years ago)

writers are a different problem from readers though so don't worry about them if all you want is to read that disk.

(although it's largely just a matter of bandwidth - getting the data off your hard drives as fast as the dvd writer is asking for it. disk space could also be an issue - burning 4G onto a dvd is pretty tough if you've only got a 10G hard drive. i have a celeron 433 that i use to burn cds and it's fine as long i don't try and burn above 8x speed)

― koogs (koogs), Thursday, 18 November 2004 14:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Although, theoretically hard-drive speed is much less of an issue nowadays as almost all writers have "burn-proof" or similair techniques which pause burning if running low on data to write.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Thursday, 18 November 2004 14:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Just to summarize/rehash: the ability of your drive to read professional DVDs != the ability to read -R or -RW discs. (You'll find that this is also a problem for slightly older standalone DVD players, too.)

― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 18 November 2004 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

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