How to 'format' CD-RW?

Toshiba Satellite A40-S270 with Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-R2412.

Trying to use a CD-RW for the first time and 'B's Clip' pops up and says to format the CD-RW first....OK.....

'B's Clip' says the format will take 20-30 minutes....4 hours later it pops out the CD-RW and says 'Bad Media'.

OK - what the .......

How can I get this sucker to access the CD-RW?
Using it like a 'floppy' sounds great but 4 hours to format seems excessive to me.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.......

 

In my experience, using the UDF packet format for CD-RWs (using them like a floppy) is a pain in the ***. If I were you, I'd save myself the trouble and buy a USB memory stick. You can find a 512Mb one for around $25. Sometimes even a 1Gb one for that price. If this can work for your application, I would highly suggest it over the CD-RW.

If you really need to do it this way, I would try Nero before 'B's Clip'. Or, someone may be able to suggest a free one for download.

 

UDF and packet writing are two different things ?


And PM15071, no need to double-post.

 

No, they're the same. UDF, packet writing, InCD and DirectCD are all names for the same thing.

It's not very useful, primarily because you sacrifice portability to do it. A PC without a packet writer driver thinks the CD is empty or corrupt.

As far as 'formatting' a CD-RW for normal use, you don't. You erase it when you want to use it again. Quick erase is usually good enough, but you can do a full format if the media keeps failing.

 

Why not just use a CD and keep updating the file, eg. xxx1.doc, xxx2.doc, xxxnth.doc. CDs' are so cheap and UDF and RW CD are nothing but trouble in my personal experience. "Da-Chicken" is right if you InCD or other UDF writing programs they can make the info only recognisible on that specific make and model of CD writer! Trust me I used to suffer from this when I would write files at Uni (using f......ing Roxio) take them home to work on them that night and could not access them on my home system but go back to Uni and access them the next day. Drove me crazy, UDF can suck!!

 

No, technically they're not.

UDF is a file system specification for optical media storage.

Packet writing uses that file system.

In my opinion, to call it UDF packet format isn't common terminology or accurate.

I know it's a mute point, but that's how I think.


Anyway, personally, I wouldn't use it.

It was handy in it's day, but these days I don't see any need, and I've found it buggy at best.

 

"I know it's a mute point, but that's how I think."

moot*