windows was unable to complete the format

[Mysterious]

Hi,i bought two blank cds & when i put in disc tray & open it in my computer.it says format like a flash,usb drive,mastered format. I choose like a flash,usb method but it says windows was unable to complete the format. I had one blank disc before & same message appear.i thought problem is in the disc.so i throw that away. But now same issue with these two brand new balnk cds.what to do ? Same problem was in windows 8 too

 

[kathy025]

Are you trying to format CD-Rs? Brand new CD-Rs need not be formatted. You can just burn to them straight away.

 

[Mysterious]

Hi i'm so sorry for late reply.because i had no internet.ok so cd-rs not need to be formatted.then how to burn them straight ?
& if i want to format them,then how to ?

 

[Mysterious]

Hi i'm so sorry for late reply.because i had no internet.ok so cd-rs not need to be formatted.then how to burn them straight ?
& if i want to format them,then how to ?

 

[michaelst]

After you insert the CD-R into the tray and close it, after a few seconds it should show up in Windows Explorer as empty drive. You can then drag and drop the files you want to copy.

You will only be able to reformat a disk if is a CD-RW (rewritable).

 

[mitchell65]

After you insert the CD-R into the tray and close it, after a few seconds it should show up in Windows Explorer as empty drive. You can then drag and drop the files you want to copy.

You will only be able to reformat a disk if is a CD-RW (rewritable).

Sorry but you are wrong here.You can't just drag and drop files to a CD-R. You can only burn the files to disc using a suitable burner software. I would suggest you try Burn Aware Free a very popular free burner software. You can download from here:
http://www.burnaware.com/

 

[Slartybart]

Here are some links that explain your options:
Format a CD or DVD - Microsoft Windows Help
Which CD or DVD format should I use? - Microsoft Windows Help

If you plan on using the disc in an older machine or some other player, then stick with burning

Other options of putting data on a disc might rendeer the disc unusable anywhere but on the machine it was created. To put it differently, you might not be able to read the disc on another device, only your PC.
​

 

[ProstarComputer]

After you insert the CD-R into the tray and close it, after a few seconds it should show up in Windows Explorer as empty drive. You can then drag and drop the files you want to copy.

You will only be able to reformat a disk if is a CD-RW (rewritable).

Sorry but you are wrong here.You can't just drag and drop files to a CD-R. You can only burn the files to disc using a suitable burner software. I would suggest you try Burn Aware Free a very popular free burner software. You can download from here:
BurnAware | Powerful & Free Burning Software

Third party software is generally ideal but you can drag and drop contents to a blank disc via Windows Explorer to burn certain content. Certain file types are best burned to disc via third party software, e.g. image files.

 

[mitchell65]

After you insert the CD-R into the tray and close it, after a few seconds it should show up in Windows Explorer as empty drive. You can then drag and drop the files you want to copy.

You will only be able to reformat a disk if is a CD-RW (rewritable).

Sorry but you are wrong here.You can't just drag and drop files to a CD-R. You can only burn the files to disc using a suitable burner software. I would suggest you try Burn Aware Free a very popular free burner software. You can download from here:
BurnAware | Powerful & Free Burning Software

Third party software is generally ideal but you can drag and drop contents to a blank disc via Windows Explorer to burn certain content. Certain file types are best burned to disc via third party software, e.g. image files.

But the statement above says " You can then drag and drop the files you want to copy." I was making the point that you can't just copy to a CD-R it must be burnt!!

 

[Slartybart]

Does anyone read what I post?

I've had nothing but trouble using anything but burn so I'm not recommending any method other than burn. Only pointing out that there are a few ways to put data on CD/DVD

CD-R mastered disc tricks users into thinking they are dragging to the CD, but it's really only staging the files to be burned.

Live File System discs:

• Enable you to copy files immediately to the disc by dragging them.
• Are convenient if you want to keep a disc in your disc burner and occasionally copy a few files at a time.
• Are convenient because there is no lengthy recording step as there is with Mastered discs. Each file is written to the disc as you drag it to the disc folder.
• Enable you to save a new file directly to the disc.
• Enable you to update or delete individual files.
• Enable you to format the disc again when you use a rewritable disc, such as a CD-RW, DVD-RW, or DVD-RAM.
• Might have to be closed before they can be used in other computers.
• Are compatible only with computers running on Windows XP and later versions of Windows.

Mastered discs:

• Enable you to drag files to the disc and then burn all the files at once.
• Are convenient if you need to burn a large collection of files.
• Are compatible with computers running older or current versions of the Windows operating system, a different operating system other than Windows, as well as some consumer electronic devices, such as CD players, DVD players, and Blu‑ray Disc players.
• Might require a large amount of free hard disk space to burn (up to twice the capacity of the disc you're burning).

 

[Mysterious]

sorry for double post,delete my duplicate post.i can't delete,maybe because i'm on mobile
btw i have cd-rw,i bought cd-rw discs because i want to re-use them.but the problem is that i mentioned in my first post.are they become unusable now,how to fix them ?

 

[Slartybart]

If they are CD-RW, you can erase and format them
Erase a CD or DVD - Microsoft Windows Help

 

[Mysterious]

ok will try...

 

[Mysterious]

Not format & either erase disc method not working.it says the wizard can't finish erasing the disc ?

 

[Slartybart]

Can you post a screenshot of what you see when this happens?

Please see http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html for the preferred method of posting files and images on Sevenforums

To recap:
You are using CD-RW discs and originally formatted them as Live File System discs (like flash USB)
This operation ended with Unable to complete the format
Attempts to erase the disc end with Unable to finish the erase.

It sounds as though Windows has an open session on the disc. I'll have to readup on this a little more, it's been a while since I've burned discs (flash drives are much easier and universal).

It will help to see the image - there might be additional information in it.

Thanks

 

[Mysterious]

yes exactly what u said.i'll post screenshots of it soon...

 

[Mysterious]

Here >>

Edit-no useful information found...

 

[jumanji]

It could be an optical drive - media compatibility problem. You may try to erase it on another computer with different brand optical drive - a more recent one preferably - and see whether erase is successful.

What brand CD-RW disk do you have?

 

[Mysterious]

it's ASDA CD-RW (Called DVD-RW On My Computer) 700Mb Rewritable 12x Speed Single sided 80 Mins

Some good news just tried on my computer,what should i do now ?

 

[Mysterious]

unfortunately again that error came when i selected burn files to disc & in options Like a usb flash drive.
windows was unable to complete the format...arggghhhhhh...