Posted by Stuart Miller on 12/17/06 23:50

"Rick Merrill" <rick0.merrill@NOSPAM.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:NLydndbUkKLyTBjYnZ2dnUVZ_q_inZ2d@comcast.com...
>I have different questions about DVD-RW disks.
>
> Do you have to "format" it before reuse or can you
> just write over?
>
> And if you write over but do not use it all
> can there be residual information from the prior
> recording? (as there would be with tape)
>

Unfortunately, the answer is 'it depends'
Roxio has two erase modes, fast and complete
Fast just rewrites the lead in area to make the disc look blank. It is
certain that there will be be some data from a previous use left on the
disc, but no index to let you find specific files.
Complete claims to do a complete erase, but it is not clear if it erases the
whole disc or just what the disc says was written this session, and I have
not got the tools to test that.
There is a security vs media life issue here - each complete erase counts as
another write cycle. How many cycles can the media support before it starts
to wear out?
There has been a lot of discussion in the various computer security
newsgroups about the ability to recover erased data, and the cost of doing
so, and the need - law suit, child porn prosecution, anti-terrorist,
corporate 'secrets', military secrets, consumer data. Finding part of a jpeg
in 4.7 gigs of garbled data ???

As I understand the process, 'format' is only required for packet writing
programs like 'drag to disc' which need to know where to put things. For a
regular complete burn, I just use 'fast erase'. Best thing is to try the
simple way first and see if it works

Stuart

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