Solved Erasing a CD-RW disk

[RobertD]

In the instructions from MS, it says to open Computer, click on drive that has the disk and on the "tool bar" click on "erase this disk". There is no option to erase showing.
How do I go about erasing the disk now?

 

[MilesAhead]

I would use Imgburn. The first time Imgburn sees it, it will want to format it. That may take 20 minutes. After that you can do Quick Erase. The Erase options are in the Tools menu Drive submenu.

The Official ImgBurn Website

 

[otis lehawk]

Can you just right click on your CD in "My Computer" and then click "format"? I would try it myself but i cannot find any of my RW disks. Sorry i cant help more.

 

[essenbe]

You can right click the disk and select erase this disk.

 

[jumanji]

In the instructions from MS, it says to open Computer, click on drive that has the disk and on the "tool bar" click on "erase this disk". There is no option to erase showing.
How do I go about erasing the disk now?

I would think that your optical drive for some reason is not reading the CD-RW disc. When you right click on the drive as suggested by essenbe, do you get the Erase this Disc in the menu?

Try with a brand new CD-RW disc, and then check whether you get the "Erase this Disc" in the tool bar.

Also try writing to the new CD-RW disk. Does it burn?

 

[SledgeDG]

My first thought was: You might have grabbed the wrong CD (i.e. a CD-R at least that's more plausible than loosing menu options out of the blue. Plus I can relate to it since it happened to me before, too

-DG

 

[DeaconFrost]

The built-in app is total crap, and unreliable on good days. Get ImgBurn or CDBurnerXP, both of which are free, and you'll have much more control over your disc burning.

 

[jumanji]

The built-in app is total crap, and unreliable on good days. Get ImgBurn or CDBurnerXP, both of which are free, and you'll have much more control over your disc burning.

More frills, features and control - absolutely true. (That also puts a learning curve ahead to use those features.)

But that does not address the basic issue raised by the OP - Why is the Erase this Disc missing in the tool bar?

(I do have ImgBurn, CDBurnerXP, Nero, Cyberlink's Power2Go, Ashampoo Burning Studio 10, many other programs that have auxiliary burn functions and others like IsoBuster which access the optical drive but none of them have taken away the basic Windows utility and I do use that erase function often instead of digging through the other programs.)

 

[RobertD]

To all those that answered my problem with erasing a CD/RW diskette, many thanks. However, the problem remains; there is no erase option anywhere on my toolbar/s. Also right clicking on the CD drive icon does not bring up either erase or format options. So how would I go about getting those options back? I'm using Win7 Pro.

 

[essenbe]

It may not help but try running scannow

 

[RobertD]

Again, thanks for all the suggestions. I installed ImgBurn and it worked just fine; now able to erase diskette and many other operations. Great program.

 

[MilesAhead]

I don't even know how to turn the W7 burn options on and off because I've been using Imgburn for a few years. About the only stuff I don't burn with Imgburn is audio CDs. I like CDBurnerXP. The fact that CDBurnerXP also prints covers may be an influence though.

 

[PeaB4YouGo]

I just have to wonder, with the price of CD-R, R/W, etc. being so danged low, why would anyone wipe one? Burn the next one from a blank and move on.

 

[MilesAhead]

I just have to wonder, with the price of CD-R, R/W, etc. being so danged low, why would anyone wipe one? Burn the next one from a blank and move on.

DVD+RW comes in handy for DVD video test burns. Erasable CD I don't even use anymore. Using them for backup is pretty much a wasted effort. Just too unreliable. I suppose one use of erasable CD would be to test boot a boot image. Can't think of any other good reason.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I do use that erase function often instead of digging through the other programs.)

Since you mention using those programs, you'll see there's really no learning curve at all. The apps step you through the process using wizards. Very easy and user friendly.

Also, the built-in app has never worked on any computer or any OS more than 50 % of the time, for burns or erasing. That's the reason why the first response to these questions is to abandon the built-in crap and use something else. If it worked well, you can bet that Microsoft would have been sued. It should be removed altogether.

 

[stfukthxbye]

Posting ITT as I have the same problem as OP. The "erase disc" option or whatever was there like... last week. And now it's gone inexplicably. I usually use Foobar2k's write to disc option when burning CDRWs for the car and I used the erase disc menu option all the time. Would be way easier and/or less wasteful to just find out why it's not showing up instead of having to download a whole other program just to erase a disc. The built-in windows option was just so much easier and never gave me any problems until now.

EDIT:
Tried putting the same disc in a different computer and the "erase this disc" option is there, so it's not the CD.

 

[mk456rt098]

Windows 10 CD-RW erasing

Hi,
for me CDBurnerXP was not able to erase the disc, it produced an error. Also the Windows default option for right clicking the drive letter produced an error "there was a problem erasing this disc".
Then I installed IMGBurn and it worked right away. It erased the disc just fine and I was able to write new files to disc also.

 

[TechnoMage2016]

JFWIW (just for whatever it's worth)


Years ago, I thought it would be neat to use RW disks for my Utilities that I take with me on all my PC service calls. So I could just erase them and renew them as my files change from time to time.


I didn't realize that an RW disk can only be read reliably on the drive that wrote it. So I gave away the last of my RW disks and now I only use CD-R or DVD+R disks. They are not so expensive that I can't toss the old ones and make new ones. Eh?


So if working with RW's is giving you problems, stop using them and only use the Single Use disks.


Happy Labor Day, Mates!