Most newer computers are now equipped with at least a DVD drive because it is getting cheaper and also a lot of games and software comes in DVD instead of CD. Both my laptop and desktop PC is equipped with a DVD burner that supports burning double layer (DL) DVD disc. My boss gave me Mac OS X Leopard DVD disc and ask me to make a copy for backup purposes. He also informed me to use double layer DVD disc to burn. I went to a computer shop and bought two DVD-R DL disc in case one if it fails to burn, at least I still have another one to try before going to shop and buy more DVD-R DL discs.
I use Nero’s DVD Copy on my laptop to try to duplicate the Apple Mac OS X Leopard DVD. After finished caching the files in my hard drive, I put in the new DVD-R DL disc. It took a while for Nero check the disc and then the drive automatically ejects with the following window:
I can’t believe that the recorder detected the disc as CD-ROM instead of DVD-R DL. I then tried using my desktop DVD burner on both disc and also got the same error!
Suddenly it struck me that there are different standards for DVD disc which is +R and -R. I know for sure that my DVD drive can burn dvd double layer disc but not sure if it can support both +R and -R. I use this tool to check my DVD drive burning capabilities.
Nero InfoTool is a free and portable tool that provides information about the most important features of installed drives, inserted discs, installed software, and much more. At the drive tab, it clearly shows that my DVD recorder doesn’t support writing to DVD -R DL disc. So coincidentally both my laptop and desktop dvd recorder doesn’t support writing DVD -R DL disc.
Because I was careless and thought that my DVD recorder can support reading and writing all double layer disc, I wasted money on the disc that cannot be used on my drive. Double Layer DVD disc are not cheap and luckily I only bought 2, not 10 or 100. I guess it’s better you know your DVD drive burning capabilities using Nero InfoTool before you buy the wrong disc which is not supported by your CD/DVD recorder.