Unmountable DVDs

[Basil Chupin]

On 01/11/13 20:11, Nils Kassube wrote:
> Basil Chupin wrote:
>> LOL!
>>
>> I think bottom line point here is:
>>
>> there is NO need to reformat, or if you prefer to use the term "erase"
>> then erase, a DVD RW disc because once it is formatted you simply
>> overwrite existing data on it. Or, in more simple terms which is
>> probably more understandable by people: you DELETE any files on that
>> disc using some file manager - like Dolphin or mc [Midnight
>> Commander] - and then write to it whatever data turns you on.
> You have repeated that statement already many times, but you still seem
> to be missing the point anyways. The OP has already reformatted the
> DVDs, so it is too late to tell him that it isn't necessary. And
> formatting a disc with k3b doesn't put a filesystem on the disc, so you
> can't mount the disc to write data to it.

OK, I think that it is time to end this endless thread.

As I said earlier I have Ubuntu 13.04 installed and while I did download 
Kubuntu 13.10 a night or so ago I am still to install it (I am reluctant 
to do so at the moment because when I installed Ubuntu it did what 
Windows does and took over my grub2 menu and decided that IT wanted to 
be boss; it took me days to recover from this).

So, not having Kubuntu but having Ubuntu I did all this testing on 
Ubuntu 13.04 with trying to format/erase a DVD RW disc using k3b. BTW 
the version of k3b is 2.0.2 (the same which I have in openSUSE). Here is 
what I found.

If one individually selects the Quick *OR* the Force format k3b will 
just tell you that it isn't necessary to format the already formatted disc.

However if you select BOTH Quick Format and Force format then k3b will 
tell you, "OK, if this is what you really want" and then configures the 
disc as a BLANK disc. NOTE that I use the word "configures".

If you then try to format it, k3b will not format it.

ALSO, when you insert this disc in the cd/dvd drive you will get the 
message that it Cannot Be Mounted.

HOWEVER, if you *ignore* this and carry on - NOTE: this applies in 
Ubuntu and I don't know what the the equivalent in Kubuntu may be - then 
you will get a menu where you are given the option to Create CD/DVD; and 
if you select this option then you can write whatever data you want to 
the RW DVD. I have done it and have written data to the DVD which went 
thru the steps I just described  so I know.

So what appears to be the problem is that while you get the message that 
the DVD cannot be mounted it CAN be written to - because it is *still* 
*formatted*!

If you want to see what I am talking about then when you start k3b go 
Device>Media Info and you will find that it will not show a blank, clean 
disc but one which is already (ie, still) formatted.

BC

-- 
Using openSUSE 13.1, KDE 4.11.2 & kernel 3.11.6-3 on a system with-
AMD FX 8-core 3.6/4.2GHz processor
16GB PC14900/1866MHz Quad Channel Corsair "Vengeance" RAM
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