Quick erase doesn't always work in ImgBurn

[Boulder]

I was wondering why ImgBurn often insists on doing a full erase when I try to use my DVD+RW's. Nero can do a quick erase but IB still thinks the disc needs to be formatted. The discs have usually been burnt as regular DVD-ROM ISOs with Nero 6.

The drive is an LG 4163B, latest firmware.

[r0lZ]

I've experienced the same problem some time ago (I don't remember which version.)
I was unable to format the DVD with ImgBurn. Finally, I used DVD Decrypter, and it worked fine!

[LIGHTNING UK!]

It does this because they're not fully formatted.

Put the disc in the drive and read what it says in the info panel on the right.

If it doesn't say 'Formatted: Yes', they're not fully formatted. As such, ImgBurn will try to make it so they are.

So long as another program doesn't mess the 'formatted' state up, you will only need to do this once. After that DVD+RW is just overwritten without the need for any sort of erase (it's not like DVD-RW in that respect).

[Boulder]

It seems many programs mark the disc as non-formatted because I've had to do a full erase almost every time when trying to re-use the disc.

I don't know if Nero could write on the disc after a quick erase (in cases where IB wants to do a full erase), I'll have to test that sometime.

Another question related to erasing : can I force erasing on discs that are not recognized properly? I have two discs that are burnt as DVD-ROM (UDF) with Nero on my dad's computer but for some reason don't work on my computer, I can't even erase them anymore.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

There are many naughty programs out there ;)

If you find ImgBurn's methods don't fit with how you like to do things, just uncheck the 'Prefer Properly Formatted +RW' option in the settings on the 'Write' tab.

It'll then allow writing to media even when it hasn't been fully formatted - note, brand new DVD+RW must ALWAYS be formatted before use. There's no way around that (although you might not see it happening).

[mrslacker]

I have noticed this too. This has only been happening with v2 ImgBurn, but that could be a cooincidence. I'm using 4x RiData DVD+RWs that have been used many times before. More often than not (75% of the time maybe) the discs need to be reformatted regardless of their actual state. I almost always burn with ImgBurn nowdays.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

As mentioned earlier in this thread, just look in the info panel and see what it says for 'Formatted:'.

ImgBurn has no control over that value, the drive reports it, I simply display it (and use it when deciding on what to do).