wrong capacities in optical drives

[sarah]

My CD & DVD drives will not show actual drive capacities, they always report
everything as full. How can I fix this?

[Gordon]

sarah wrote:

> My CD & DVD drives will not show actual drive capacities, they always
> report
> everything as full. How can I fix this?

Are these Recordable drives, or just read-Only drives?

--
Gordon Burgess-Parker
Interim Systems and Management Accounting
www.gbpcomputing.co.uk

[DanS]

=?Utf-8?B?c2FyYWg=?= > wrote in
:

> My CD & DVD drives will not show actual drive capacities, they always
> report everything as full. How can I fix this?

There is nothing to fix. CD & DVD drives don't typically show disc
capacity.

When you create a CD/DVD, the CD is usually closed, or finalized, after
writing (unless its a multi-session CD which I have done very little of).

When that CD/DVD disc is finalized, it is done, no more can be added, it is
in essence full with no remaining space.

I don't know the situation with CD-RW/DVD-RW's and UDP packet writing, that
may be different.

[Ron Sommer]

Inline

"DanS" > wrote in message
...
> =?Utf-8?B?c2FyYWg=?= > wrote in
> :
>
>> My CD & DVD drives will not show actual drive capacities, they always
>> report everything as full. How can I fix this?
>
> There is nothing to fix. CD & DVD drives don't typically show disc
> capacity.
>
> When you create a CD/DVD, the CD is usually closed, or finalized, after
> writing (unless its a multi-session CD which I have done very little of).
>
> When that CD/DVD disc is finalized, it is done, no more can be added, it
> is
> in essence full with no remaining space.

If you are using the XP burner software, the CD cannot be used again.
Other burner software will burn a new session to a CD. The old session
becomes unavailable. A new session can be burned until the total capacity
of the CD is used.
--
Ron Sommer
>
> I don't know the situation with CD-RW/DVD-RW's and UDP packet writing,
> that
> may be different.

[Gordon]

Ron Sommer wrote:

>
> If you are using the XP burner software, the CD cannot be used again.
> Other burner software will burn a new session to a CD. The old session
> becomes unavailable. A new session can be burned until the total capacity
> of the CD is used.


Interesting - my wife has burned multi-session CDs on her copy of XP........
And no she DOESN'T have any third-party software installed.....

--
Gordon Burgess-Parker
Interim Systems and Management Accounting
www.gbpcomputing.co.uk

[Ron Sommer]

"Gordon" > wrote in message
. uk...
> Ron Sommer wrote:
>
>>
>> If you are using the XP burner software, the CD cannot be used again.
>> Other burner software will burn a new session to a CD. The old session
>> becomes unavailable. A new session can be burned until the total
>> capacity
>> of the CD is used.
>
>
> Interesting - my wife has burned multi-session CDs on her copy of
> XP........
> And no she DOESN'T have any third-party software installed.....
>
> --
> Gordon Burgess-Parker
> Interim Systems and Management Accounting
> www.gbpcomputing.co.uk

I am talking about CD-R disks and closings the disk after each burn.
A multi-session CD allows what is already burned to the CD to be visible
after adding more to the CD.
--
Ron Sommer

[Gordon]

Ron Sommer wrote:

>
> "Gordon" > wrote in message
> . uk...
>> Ron Sommer wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> If you are using the XP burner software, the CD cannot be used again.
>>> Other burner software will burn a new session to a CD. The old session
>>> becomes unavailable. A new session can be burned until the total
>>> capacity
>>> of the CD is used.
>>
>>
>> Interesting - my wife has burned multi-session CDs on her copy of
>> XP........
>> And no she DOESN'T have any third-party software installed.....
>>
>> --
>> Gordon Burgess-Parker
>> Interim Systems and Management Accounting
>> www.gbpcomputing.co.uk
>
> I am talking about CD-R disks and closings the disk after each burn.

I wasn't aware that the XP burning utility had a "close CD function". Oh
well, you live and learn.....
--
Gordon Burgess-Parker
Interim Systems and Management Accounting
www.gbpcomputing.co.uk

[sarah]

"Gordon" wrote:

> sarah wrote:
>
> > My CD & DVD drives will not show actual drive capacities, they always
> > report
> > everything as full. How can I fix this?
>
> Are these Recordable drives, or just read-Only drives?
>
> --
> Gordon Burgess-Parker
> Interim Systems and Management Accounting
> www.gbpcomputing.co.uk
>

Gordon,

I knew I wasn't giving enough information, couldn't think what though.
These are 2 RW drives, I am using the Nero software bunddled with the drives
and they are "multisession" recordings. Nero show the actual used capacity
while I'm burning.

The zip, floppy and HD drives do report properly.

[Gordon]

sarah wrote:

>
>
> "Gordon" wrote:
>
>> sarah wrote:
>>
>> > My CD & DVD drives will not show actual drive capacities, they always
>> > report
>> > everything as full. How can I fix this?
>>
>> Are these Recordable drives, or just read-Only drives?
>>
>
>
> Gordon,
>
> I knew I wasn't giving enough information, couldn't think what though.
> These are 2 RW drives, I am using the Nero software bunddled with the
> drives
> and they are "multisession" recordings. Nero show the actual used
> capacity while I'm burning.
>
> The zip, floppy and HD drives do report properly.

I think this is standard behaviour. The only time you get proper capacity
reporting is if you have formatted a CDRW disk for packet writing. If you
are just burning CDRs then this is what happens and I don't think you can
change it AFAIK.....



--
Gordon Burgess-Parker
Interim Systems and Management Accounting
www.gbpcomputing.co.uk

[sarah]

"Gordon" wrote:

> sarah wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > "Gordon" wrote:
> >
> >> sarah wrote:
> >>
> >> > My CD & DVD drives will not show actual drive capacities, they always
> >> > report
> >> > everything as full. How can I fix this?
> >>
> >> Are these Recordable drives, or just read-Only drives?
> >>
> >
> >
> > Gordon,
> >
> > I knew I wasn't giving enough information, couldn't think what though.
> > These are 2 RW drives, I am using the Nero software bunddled with the
> > drives
> > and they are "multisession" recordings. Nero show the actual used
> > capacity while I'm burning.
> >
> > The zip, floppy and HD drives do report properly.
>
> I think this is standard behaviour. The only time you get proper capacity
> reporting is if you have formatted a CDRW disk for packet writing. If you
> are just burning CDRs then this is what happens and I don't think you can
> change it AFAIK.....
>
>
>
> --
> Gordon Burgess-Parker
> Interim Systems and Management Accounting
> www.gbpcomputing.co.uk
>

Thanks Gordon, now I can just quit worrying about it.