DVD-R's with zero free space & used space

Those DVD discs might be damaged that Windows doesn't want to read them, or they have been written to with only being Finalized or something strange.

You can try to boot up from a free alternate operating system (such as Ubuntu), and try seeing what's in those discs from that operating system.

1) Download Ubuntu (it's free)
2) Download Rufus to put this operating system on a USB device (make sure you have an empty USB device to put Ubuntu on).
3) Follow the install instructions

Insert an empty 2 GB, or bigger, USB Device into the computer.Run Rufus. Make sure the USB Device is selected under Device (Make sure not to mistake it with any other USB devices that are connected to your computer). Press the CD button on the right of: "Create a bootable disk using".Select the Ubuntu ISO file and press Open. Press Start, OK then OK.This process will take some time to finish.

4) Restart your computer.
5) Make sure the USB Device is prioritized to run first before your Windows drive.
6) After Ubuntu loads, open the DVD from there and see if this operating system lets you see what's on there.

Download the FreeNero Info Tool it will tell you everything about the Disc and your Burner drive.
If you have Nero Burning Rom software, You can go to the Toolbar/Recorder/Disc Info for all the info about the disc.

Basics: A DVD-R or DVD+R disc is Recordable, once. A DVD-RW or DVD+RW is ReWritable, can be erased and used again or added to if not closed. Some recording scenarios can keep an R disc open but I don't do that, the R is an archive copy of data I want to keep. Most all discs that contain installable programs will be the R. Checking Properties in File Explorer will always show 0 space available on those discs. Audio discs are different, don't show the actual files but have .cda files which are only pointers to the actual data, why it's necessary to Rip the disc using something like Windows Media Player rather than just copy. And note the spelling, it's disc as usually marked on the tray, not disk as known with hard drives.

albert1 said:

I have approx. a dozen DVD-R's that were included with a large stack of new DVD-Rs that appear to have been written to.

From the DVD drive properties show "zero space", "zero used" and "zero capacity"

From File Explore I'm not able to find anything on each of the DVD-R's.

Before tossing them I'm trying to figure if there's a way to access the written data on these unknown dvd-r drives?

Their labeled MAGNAVOX DVD-R 4.7GB DATA - 120 MINUTES - VIDEO 1 - 16X SPEED.

I buy DVDs and CDs in the 100/150 pack stacks. I find there are inevitably a few bad ones; they read 0/0/0, and I just toss them out. They can also go bad over time.

I guess the best thing to do is to keep the empty DVDs that actually do work (for you to use them whenever you need to) and to throw away the empty 0 sized ones that cannot be written to. There's a possibility that they may contain sensitive data that the previous owner had on them, and that those people may have accidentally gave away those discs.

I understand that yes, some of us are curious about things such as what's on those discs, but it would be better if you throw away the unusable discs (like you said). Also, there may be a possibility that they may contain damaging data (such as viruses); only keep the ones that you can use to write your data to.