Windows 7: Windows 7 Repair Disk Reformatting

Hello!
I recently had some issues with my wimpy work laptop, and they were quickly resolved by making a repair disk with my gaming rig.
However, when I tried to reformat the disk, it seems to be read-only and only formattable to some weird file system.
Is this purposeful? Are these disks forever repair disks?
I guess it might be useful to have one lying around, but I would like to recycle the disk.
Thanks,
Evan

How are you trying to reformat the disk? Normally you would do this during the Windows 7 install process.

Follow these steps closely to get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

I created the disk using the "Create Repair Disk" option on the Backup menu.

I have successfully repaired my computer, so there's no reason to keep the repair disk.

EDIT: Wow, I'm mentally hitting myself. It's a DVD-R, so I can't reformat.
Argh, I thought I grabbed a -RW. D'oh well.

You do not use a Repair CD to reformat and reinstall Windows 7. You use a DVD burned with the ISO image file of your licensed version, which I provided you in the blue link above.

During install, delete all partitions to Create and Format New ones as you wish. See Steps 6/7 here for illustration: Clean Install Windows 7