Plextor 712A won't rewrite DVD-RW (why not?)

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Mon, Jan 24, 2005 at 08:31:56PM -0500, Peter King wrote:
> I have a Plextor PX-712A DVD/RW drive, which burns CDRs and CDRWs fine with cdrecord,
> and also DVD+R(W) and DVD-R(W) with growisofs. But it will not re-write DVD-RW with 
> growisofs. Take an ordinary disc that has been written to as follows:
> 
>      growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=image.iso
> 
> But I can't blank it or force a new format on it no matter what I try; dvd+rw-format
> gives me the following errors:
> 
> user at computer$ dvd+rw-format -force /dev/dvd
> * DVD?RW/-RAM format utility by <appro-6n+bmRoGAL6ci/EUP2OQSw at public.gmane.org>, version 4.10.
> * 4.7GB DVD-RW media in Sequential mode detected.
> * formatting /:-[ PERFORM OPC failed with SK=5h/ASC=27h/ACQ=00h]: Input/output error
> 
> user at computer$ dvd+rw-format -blank=full /dev/dvd
> * DVD?RW/-RAM format utility by <appro-6n+bmRoGAL6ci/EUP2OQSw at public.gmane.org>, version 4.10.
> * 4.7GB DVD-RW media in Sequential mode detected.
> * blanking /:-[ PERFORM OPC failed with SK=5h/ASC=27h/ACQ=00h]: Input/output error
> 
> I get the same errors whether I run the command as root or an ordinary user, whether
> the "full" option is added or not, on DVD-RW discs from different manufacturers. Ditto
> for just re-running the growisofs command above with a new image.iso.
> 
> The "input/output error" made me suspicious, so I ran dvd+rw-mediainfo:
> 
> user at computer$ dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/dvd
> INQUIRY:                [PLEXTOR ][DVDR   PX-712A  ][1.04]
> GET [CURRENT] CONFIGURATION:
>  Mounted Media:         14h, DVD-RW Sequential
>  Current Write Speed:   1.0x1385=1385KB/s
>  Write Speed #0:        1.0x1385=1385KB/s
> GET [CURRENT] PERFORMANCE:
>  Write Performance:     1.0x1385=1385KB/s@[0 -> 2294911]
>  Speed Descriptor#0:    03/1922435 R at 12.0x1385=16620KB/s W at 1.0x1385=1385KB/s
> READ DVD STRUCTURE[#10h]:
>  Media Book Type:       32h, DVD-RW book [revision 2]
>  Legacy lead-out at:    2298496*2KB=4707319808
> READ DVD STRUCTURE[#0h]:
>  Media Book Type:       32h, DVD-RW book [revision 2]
>  Last border-out at:    1922436*2KB=3937148928
> READ DISC INFORMATION:
>  Disc status:           complete
>  Number of Sessions:    1
>  State of Last Session: complete
>  Number of Tracks:      1
> READ TRACK INFORMATION[#1]:
>  Track State:           complete
>  Track Start Address:   0*2KB
>  Free Blocks:           0*2KB
>  Track Size:            1922436*2KB
>  Last Recorded Address: 1922435*2KB
> FABRICATED TOC:
>  Track#1  :             14 at 0
>  Track#AA :             14 at 1922436
>  Multi-session Info:    #1 at 0
> READ CAPACITY:          1922436*2048=3937148928
> 
> I notice that the INQUIRY lists the drive as DVDR, not DVDRW, but I don't know if
> that's the problem -- or if it is, how to change it. DMA is turned on for the drive
> and the permissions should be fine (/dev/dvd --> /dev/hdc):
> 
>    brw-rw-rw-  1 root cdrom 22, 0 2004-07-22 15:54 /dev/hdc
> 
> What gives? Google turned up nothing, and I'm more or less at a loss at this point.
> 
> dvd+rw-tools: 4.10
> growisofs: 5.21
> 
> Debian GNU/Linux running Sarge: Kernel 2.6.8 using ide_cd (hence ATAPI).
> 
> Any help would be appreciated!

Well I haven't tried DVD-RW on the plextor drives, I have only used
DVD+RW so far (along with DVD-R) and for the DVD+RW I just keep using
the same disk to write images to and I never have to blank or format or
anything in between.  I would have thought it would work the same way on
DVD-RW but I could be wrong.  Everything else looks correct on first
look.  

The cdwrite mailing list (lists.debian.org hosts it although it is not
a debian list) is a great place to ask questions (the authors of both
dvd+rw-tools and cdrecord hang out there.  Watch out for the author of
cdrecord.  He seems to think no one else writes decent code, and that
Solaris is the only OS that ever is close to working, but everything
else on the list is great).

Lennart Sorensen
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