Blank DVD needs formatting error when trying to burn data

 

Find out why some blank DVDs need formatting apparently when you are trying to burn data on them even though they are not rewritable or recordable discs.

 

I bought a new batch of blank regular DVDs today as I wanted to burn videos and other data on them.

While I don't burn data to discs regularly anymore, I do that occasionally.

Everything was normal when I inserted the first blank disc into the drive but the program that I was using at that time, ConvertXtoDVD, threw a disc burning error right after it started the burn process.

I started ImgBurn afterwards which displays a strange error message in the status bar that informed me that the disc needed formatting before it could be used.

I have never encountered the message before and knew that it did not make sense at all, as blank DVD discs don't have to be formatted before they can be used.

I did try to get if formatted however just to see if it may have been labeled incorrectly but it was not the case either.

I tried the next two discs and they too threw the same error messages and to make sure it was not the drive that was the problem, I tried to burn files quickly on another computer.

This did not work as well which confirmed that the discs were faulty.

I tested them all and found some that were working fine while others were not working at all.

The reason for this is that discs, especially if bought in packs of 25, 50 or more, can sometimes be faulty.

There is not really anything that you can do about this to get them to work on your system, but you may want to avoid buying discs from the manufacturer again in the future.

Depending on where you live, you may get the store to take them back and replace them with another batch.

The easiest way to find out if a disc is faulty is to run ImgBurn, select Write files/folders to disc and check the program's status bar as it reveals if the disc is usable or not.-

In this particular case, if Disc Needs Formatting is shown it is faulty and cannot be used at all.

In case you are wondering, of the 50 blank no-name discs that I bought, only seven were working while the remaining 43 were not. I did take the pack back to the store and got a refund.