Windows 7: I can't workout how to format a DVD-R disc

Last night I managed to copy some photographs onto a CD- R disc and they played on the TV through a DVD player. This evening I attempted to load some photographs onto some discs which came with no marking on them so they must have been cheap. The outer cover of the discs said, “DVD-R and when I attempted to start to use them a message which I set out below came up saying the disc needed formatting. I looked up how to format a disc and I followed the instructions as far as I could which I set out below.



1. Insert a disc into your computer's CD or DVD drive. I did that.
2. In the dialog box that appears, click Burn files to disc. That did come up.
3. In the Burn a disc dialog box, type a name for your new disc. I did that.

Another box came up asking. How do you want to use this disc? Like a USB flash drive. With a CD/DVD player and I clicked onto the With a CD/DVD player.
I then clicked onto next.

A large empty box with nothing in it came up and a small block came up saying. Windows can’t read the disc in drive D:\ Make sure that the disc uses a format that Windows recognizes. If the disc is unformatted, you need to format it before using it.
From then on in I was stuffed because there were no formatting options to be seen. Any suggestions will be welcome although the thought crossed my mind that pherhaps I need to buy some CD-R discs but I thought I should use DVD discs.

A CD/DVD-R can't be formatted in the way a hard disk can. Some software can however format a CD/DVD-RW disk so it can be used like a floppy or USB flash. In this way the RW disk can have files deleted or modified. The drawback is some DVD players won't play RW disks, usually older ones though.

If you burn it as a data disk, I think it should play, my videos files do at least, they are .mkv, mp4, .avi, etc.

Right, I think I’ve cracked it following the old adage that if you just play around with the computer trying various options a solution occurs. The following is what I finished up with when I found "Windows DVD maker" although I’m sure there are other options available. My confusion arose when I tried to use the USB flash option on a DVD. Anyway, I kept trying and the following is what I found.
Placed a DVD-R disc in the computer.
A box came up with the heading, “Auto Play” showing two options “Burn files to disc” and “Burn a DVD video disc” I selected the latter.
Another box came up with the heading, “Windows DVD maker”
I then went to “Start” and opened “Pictures” selected a folder I wanted to copy, opened it, select all the photographs and dragged them into the “Windows DVD maker” box. I did this to a couple of other folders.
I then pressed “Next” and then pressed “Burn” and waited a few minutes and the DVD disc popped out ready to play on the TV through a DVD player.

Good news, I'm glad you figured it out.

I format my DVD/CD- R with no problems in this fashon.
1. Install disk
2. My computer
3. Right click on the DVD/CD-R and I get a option to fromat and I do.
4. Do the steps again except right click tick properties to make sure nothing is on the disc. I'm using Sony disc.

Hmm, thanks Jack, I'd never tried it, but you're right. I think the OP was having more trouble with the file format and player compatibility.