reformat dvd +-rw

[bigpanda]

I know it sounds absurd to post a question like this here but I had tried to do it in google but there seems to be no trivial solution. Buying a new disc is not the answer I am looking for, please. If they are called rewritables, why aren't they?
I am using nero and InCD and I could never erase or format a RW (even it is fresh out of the box) explicitly. There are ways to trash RW : acidentally ejection or computer hung during a burn process. But if they are RW, we are suppose to be able to cleanse them. Any idea or forums I might get better advice?

[Nordic]

Hi, I remember when i got my first rewriteable writer, it came with extra software which allows you to erase/format the drive... or do multi session writes...

Haven't used it in a while, not even sure if one still needs the software to erase the CDs and DVDs with..

[Netlist]

With InCD installed you should see the format option when right clicking on the CD drive in Explorer, provided a CD-RW is inserted.

/Hugo

[DigitalJunkie]

Some of the earlier drives are CD-R _ONLY_.
Your drive needs to be a CD-RW capable drive.
I don't know if newer drives are all RW capable,or what.

(Edit: erm,replace "CD" with "DVD" )

[MikeB]

Nero has an option "Erase rewritable disc" under "Recorder". If that does not work, you might have a conflict Nero <-> InCD. Or your drive does not really support RW media. You have not told which drive you use.
With modern drives/media, you don't need to erase RWs, you can simply burn over the existing data.

Mike

[AndrewT]

when a DVD +rw is formatted, does the format process identify bad sectors and exclude them from the next write area, as does an HDD reformat?

[Netlist]

No idea, but Nero has a build-in tool to test disks.

/Hugo