DVD/R/RW choice

[Zimbop]

I have a G4 DP 1ghz mirror door Mac with the built in DVD/CD writer. Can anyone explain to me in plain talk what DVD/R and DVD/RW I should be using, I bought one lot of DVD/RW at some expense- used them once and now can't write to them

Zim

 

[DeltaMac]

you have to erase a DVD-RW through Disk Utility for reuse. Toast should also handle erasing an RW.

Haven't seen a DVD/RW. Should be either DVD-RW, or DVD+RW. The one that you likely have to use would be DVD-RW ...

 

[naodx]

If you still have the stock drive in your machine, you have a pioneer 104. This drive is capable of burning dvd-r at 2x speed. And dvd-rw at 1x I believe (if I'm wrong on this please correct me).

Not to sound condescending or anything, but make sure you pick up media that is marked either dvd-r or dvd-rw, not dvd+r or dvd+rw. The "+" standard wasn't supported on this drive.

I can't remember this for sure (don't work with dvd-rw's that much), so maybe somebody else will be able to answer this for you better, but I don't think that apple's built-in burning software will allow you to do multiple burns on a dvd-rw. If I remember correctly, Roxio's Toast allows you to do multiple burns, but again I can't remember for sure. If you want to replace whatever is on the -rw disk, you must erase it first (quick erase works just fine).

Hope this helps.

 

[Arden]

I can't remember this for sure (don't work with dvd-rw's that much), so maybe somebody else will be able to answer this for you better, but I don't think that apple's built-in burning software will allow you to do multiple burns on a dvd-rw. If I remember correctly, Roxio's Toast allows you to do multiple burns, but again I can't remember for sure. If you want to replace whatever is on the -rw disk, you must erase it first (quick erase works just fine).

This is correct. The Finder doesn't support burning multi-session CD's, but Toast handles it just fine (though you will not be able to do so if you click Burn Disc... you have to click Burn Session).

To re-use a DVD-RW (or even a CD-RW), use Disk Utility or Toast to "erase" the disc. You will then be able to burn anew.