DVD-RAM problems

BobW66 · 17 Sep 2011

I have been using DVD-RAM discs for many years to store/archive pictures and other data and have never encountered any problems with them. Recommendations I have seen on the web state that this format is the most robust and reliable DVD format for data storage and that DVD-RAM discs should have a lifetime of 30 years if stored in the right conditions.

I recently purchased a new Sony Vaio 'all-in-one' PC with W7 64 Bit OS and I have been very pleased with it. One of the reasons that I chose this PC was because the optical drive spec included read/write for DVD-RAM discs. I tested this facility straight away and it appeared to work perfectly with new DVD-RAM discs BUT when I put in some of my older DVD-RAM archive discs, Windows Explorer shows them to be empty, although a few of the discs it was able to read OK.

This has come as a considerable shock to me, because I have a lot of DVD-RAM archives but fortunately, I still have an old XP (SP3) laptop which can read the discs. So, I am in the process of copying all the archived data onto a 1TB Toshiba USB drive from where the new Sony Vaio can access the 'missing' files.

The question in my mind is whether there is a fundamental incompatibility between older DVD-RAM discs and W7 64 bit or whether the problem lies with outdated drivers, different formatting of older DVD-RAM discs or some other reasons. I also need to decide whether to continue archiving onto DVD-RAM discs.

Any thoughts, comments or suggestions would be very welcome...

seavixen32 · 17 Sep 2011

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

Check this link, which suggests there are, in fact, compatibility issues between DVD-RAM discs and DVD drives installed in Sony computers.

Sony eSupport - Electronics - Support Information

BobW66 · 18 Sep 2011

seavixen32 said:

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

Check this link, which suggests there are, in fact, compatibility issues between DVD-RAM discs and DVD drives installed in Sony computers.

Sony eSupport - Electronics - Support Information

Many thanks for your welcome and response!

I have read the Sony eSupport document but I don't think that it explains the problems I am experiencing....

I have since done some more tests with an external USB Samsung optical drive and found that it won't read the DVD-RAM files when plugged into the Sony Vaio W7 PC. However, when I plug the same Samsung USB drive into my XP laptop, the files are displayed in the normal way. I can only conclude therefore that this is a W7 problem and nothing to do with the optical drives (or their drivers).

supernova777 · 01 Nov 2020

does anyone have any info to confirm whether or not DVD-RAM support was purposely dropped by Microsoft in windows 7?

does this affect only the 64bit versions? or does it affect the 32bit version of windows 7 aswell?

TechnoMage2016 · 03 Nov 2020

Just for general information:

Back in the days when we used floppy disks for all our data storage, we found that over time the disk drives would go out of alignment. Then a floppy drive could/would only read what it had written.

I had alignment disks, and I did a lot of floppy disk RE-alignments. The worse drive ever for going out of alignment was the Commodore 1541 disk drive. I developed a fix for that.
I even did re-alignments on the full height IBM drives.

All of those drives could read what was written by them, but maybe could not read data written on other drives.

A USB flash drive was the ultimate solution to the incompatibility problem.

RAM Disks? I have ONE somewhere but I've never used them for data storage.
The worse case was the RE-Writable CD. I had a lot of problems using those, and expecting the data to be read on another drive. It was just a coin toss, as to whether the data would be read on another drive, or not.
I had much better luck with the Write Once, CD/DVD's, and I used them exclusively before going to USB flash drives exclusively.

Cheers Mate!
TM

file3456 · 04 Nov 2020

From a poorly written paragraph on Wikipedia:

Even though it is possible to use any file system one likes, very few perform well on DVD-RAM. This is because some file systems frequently overwrite data on the disc and the table of contents is contained at the start of the disc. Windows Vista (and later) implement the CPRM data protection and thus discs formatted under Windows XP (or earlier) have compatibility issues with Vista onwards (and vice versa).

DVD-RAM - Wikipedia

Panasonic doesn't make DVD-RAM disks anymore and while they still may be obtained from eBay, Amazon or other sources, the format is dead. I would urge you to move to Blu-ray which is what I use. You can burn on Blu-ray disks with capacities of 25 GB, 50 GB and even 100 GB if the Blu-ray burner supports it. Further, some Blu-ray burners support M-DISC which is a rock-like layer on the disk that is supposedly able to last 1,000 years. Where ever they get that number I don't know. But the M-Disc format passes certain specifications and I think a mil-spec standard (military standard). My current Panasonic Blu-ray burner is capable of burning up to 50 GB Blu-rays and 25 GB M-DISCs. I wanted a burner capable of burning 100 GB Blu-ray disks and M-DISCs, but I could not find one in that configuration. This Panasonic has been pretty decent and seems to have very low bit integrity errors. The exact model is: BDR-209DBK.

I don't think the format should really be considered on disk longevity, but more about the type of optical media you buy from what ever manufacturer and how you chose to store the disk. Here are two pointers to make sure your optical media lasts as long as possible.

A) Do not write directly on the back of the disk. The dye from the pen can shorten the life of the disk.

B) Store the disk in a cool, dry place where it is dark.