DVD-RAM Failed

Hello,

I have Mint on a flash drive now and will run it later. Presume you have to boot from it. (

Just by curiosity...

Are You sure that those Disks have been finalized when you created them ?
Are they Brand name Like Verbatim/Sony/TDK or they are Generic brand ?
Your DVD-RAM may require a firware upgrade. Identify the manufacturer and model number of the DVD writer
And check on their web site for a Firware Update for your device.

Do you have the same problem in Safe Mode?
There is a disc checker and data recovery programme---cdroller.com---which might be of use.
Have you considered running ---dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth---just in case it could be an operating system fault?

Berton said:

I also keep Mint on the USB drive which was created using the USB Image Writer and Yes, it has to be booted to be useful.

I'm reluctant for the moment to try booting from a flash drive. There are about five fitted - how to find the right one when I try to boot ?

Also afraid it may damage my Windows boot system. (

Will look for other alternatives first.

Regards,

Nordland

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MaloK said:

Just by curiosity...

Are You sure that those Disks have been finalized when you created them ?

DVD-RAMs don't need to be finalised. The thing with these is they can be written to directly without any need for a burner programme. Hence their '-RAM' suffix. Files and folders can be erased as well. They're slow but useful.

Are they Brand name Like Verbatim/Sony/TDK or they are Generic brand ?

They are all by Panasonic.

Your DVD-RAM may require a firware upgrade. Identify the manufacturer and model number of the DVD writer
And check on their web site for a Firware Update for your device.

They are all less than six months old. One is a brand new Lite-On device. Can't in any case see how one could easily update a DVD writer's firmware.

It has to be a software or update issue:
happens on two W10 pro 21H1 up-to-date machines at around the same time;
new -RAM capable DVD writer installed on one machine still exhibits same problem.

At least I now have a spare DVD writer. )

Regards,

Nordland.

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joeandmarg0 said:

Do you have the same problem in Safe Mode?
There is a disc checker and data recovery programme---cdroller.com---which might be of use.
Have you considered running ---dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth---just in case it could be an operating system fault?

I've never used Safe Mode - don' really know how !

I'll look up how to use the DISM suggestion and try that.

Regards

Nordland

Nordland said:

(snip)

They are all less than six months old. One is a brand new Lite-On device. Can't in any case see how one could easily update a DVD writer's firmware.

(snip)

Nordland

DVD writer firmware upgrades are commonplace. They are typically done via a Windows utility. You may find that your drives, although new, were manufactured a few years ago.

I doubt that has anything to do with your problem, though.

It may help if you provide the model numbers of your burners, or even (Heaven forefend!) list the specs of your machine in My Computer. That could reduce the crystal ball aspects of the discussion.

bobkn said:

DVD writer firmware upgrades are commonplace. They are typically done via a Windows utility. You may find that your drives, although new, were manufactured a few years ago.

I doubt that has anything to do with your problem, though.

It may help if you provide the model numbers of your burners, or even (Heaven forefend!) list the specs of your machine in My Computer. That could reduce the crystal ball aspects of the discussion.

Without taking the drives out of their cases, I can only list what the Device Managers tell me:

- One is ATAPI iHAS122F by Lite-On

- Other is HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22NS50 by LG

The drive which was replaced by the Lite-On was a DVD WRITER MODEL SH-22 Super Writemaster Speed +

None of them will read or write DVD-RAM discs.

Hope this is sufficient info.

I haven't tried anything else yet as one of the machines is in constant use and I can't afford to kill it by doing things I'm not familiar with.

Regards,

Nordland

PS Wondering if an external USB drive would read my -RAMs. They're not expensive ...

Thanks. As you already know, both drives are spec'd to support DVD-RAM.

A quick look finds no firmware updates for either.

Sorry that I can't come up with any helpful ideas. All that I can suggest is that if you have access to another PC that reads DVD-RAM, copy off the data so that you won't lose them.

bobkn said:

Thanks. As you already know, both drives are spec'd to support DVD-RAM.

A quick look finds no firmware updates for either.

Sorry that I can't come up with any helpful ideas. All that I can suggest is that if you have access to another PC that reads DVD-RAM, copy off the data so that you won't lose them.

Thanks. That's what I had thought of doing.

The drive on the secondary machine did manage to read a DVD-RAM disc with a lot of noise and fuss. I shall investigate whether it can also read others.

Regards

Nordland