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Hi2all!

I've got 2 rigs, 1 w/W98SE & 1 w/XP.
InCD 3.5.24.0 is on the W98SE, InCD 4.0.1.0 on the XP rig.

Problem: full formatting of brand-new CD-RW 700MB media yields irregular capacities

On the 98SE+3.5.24.0 system, full format yields a writeable area of 572MB (Nero InfoTool reports 576MB or 65:36:32) on a FujiFilm 10X 700MB CD-RW (InfoTool reports media type as 98m10s00f).

Ditto with Verbatim 4X 700MB (Mitsubishi 4X CD-RW 79:59:74). Again, I get only 572MB useable space.


Now on to XP+4.0.1.0 - both a Verbatim 4X 700MB & a Platinum 12X 700MB (CMC Magnetics 10X CD-RW 79:59:74) yielded only 469MB!!! Nero InfoTool reports 576MB or 65:36:25.

All of the formatted CD-RWs are reported as Data CD Mode 2, 1 Session 1 Track, UDF 1.50.

I don't have too much UDF writing experience, but heck, I'm expecting to see a formatted, useable capacity of 700MB - or damn close to that. Is there a cap to the max capacity for the UDF 1.50 file system (& is it 576MB)?

Thx in advance for any words of wisdom

P.S. [W98SE] Full Formatting of a 4X and 10x CD-RW both took ~22mins plus another 4mins for the logical formatting. There seemed to be no difference (during formatting) between 4X & 10X rated CD-RWs...?!?

Writing Q3A's pak0.pk3 (1 file, 468,256KB) to a 10X CD-RW took 6mins on the 98SE platform & 7mins on the XP. This roughly calculates into 1300KB/s and 1115KB/s respectively, or 8.5X & 7.5X. Factoring in the fact that the 700MB blank was not filled to capacity and that the burners are CAV-based, this seems to be about right. Agreed...?

This capacity error with 4.0.1.0 have been corrected - just have a bit of patience until the next web update.

Traveller:

For 80min/700MB CD-RW discs formatted to UDF 1.50 (non-MRW), InCD 3.x yields the free space of 572 MB, whereas Nero InfoTool v1.03.3 shows the capacity of 576 MB, just as you reported. This discrepancy is a bug of Nero InfoTool (which might have been eliminated in v2.0; I'll check later).

This formatted capacity of 572 MB in UDF 1.50 on a 700 MB disc is normal (as for the "lost" capacity, recall unformatted disquettes). For MRW, you will get only 539 MB of free space on 700 MB discs due to additional overheads.

As for incorrect capacities under InCD 4.0.1.0, see the discussion preceding

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic. ... 8562#68562

It's hard to assess your timings without knowing your burners. On my Lite-On LTR48125W burner, formatting a 10x disc to UDF 1.50 takes about 11 min: 8 min for physical formatting, plus 3 min for logical formatting. Perhaps other 10x media will give you similar timings. Your writing speeds look reasonable.

KCK wrote:This formatted capacity of 572 MB in UDF 1.50 on a 700 MB disc is normal

Traveller's a neeewbieee, Traveller's a neeewbieee! Ouch...

As for incorrect capacities under InCD 4.0.1.0, see the discussion preceding http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic. ... 8562#68562

Check! Made to about the fourth page... (diagnosis: attention-span deficit) Just kidding

It's hard to assess your timings without knowing your burners. On my Lite-On LTR48125W burner, formatting a 10x disc to UDF 1.50 takes about 11 min: 8 min for physical formatting, plus 3 min for logical formatting. Perhaps other 10x media will give you similar timings.

The drives (see sig.) are competitive, at least that's what CDSpeed & DVDSpeed tell me. I'm just wondering if I have a potential OS / app issue, specific to UDF formatting. 11 mins sounds much more reasonable!

My [other] point was that I was surprised that there was no difference using 4X or 10X media! Should there be...?

thx again for the input!

Since both mine and your burners rewrite at 10x, physical formatting of an 80min 10x disc should take about 80 min/10 = 8 min, as I reported, whereas for an 80min 4x disc it should take about 20 min, which is close enough to your 22 min.

Thus it seems that the burner used for formatting your 10x disc didn't like that particular disc. You could try other discs, or other 10x or 12x media.