Unmountable DVDs

[O. Sinclair]

On 10/31/2013 08:46 AM, Basil Chupin wrote:
> On 31/10/13 15:13, Phil wrote:
>> On 10/31/2013 01:08 PM, Basil Chupin wrote:
>>> On 31/10/13 00:48, Phil wrote:
>>>> Thank you for reading this.
>>>>
>>>> I had encouraged an acquaintance to install Kubuntu and somehow he
>>>> managed to wipe Windows Vista during the process. Not a major disaster
>>>> so far but still it's an annoyance all round. The current problem for
>>>> me is that I have to provide a solution for several rewritable DVDs
>>>> that are now unmountable.
>>>>
>>>> A batch of DVDs were formatted using K3B so that they could be reused.
>>>> Unfortunately, they are now unmountable. I know this to be the case
>>>> from my own past experience with K3B, no mater if "format" or "quick
>>>> format" is selected the result is the same, a disc that is unmountable.
>>>>
>>>> While delving into another laptop I've discovered that Windows 7 is
>>>> able to mount the previously unmountable discs and format all but one
>>>> of them as UDF discs.
>>>>
>>>> Apparently buying a copy of Windows 7 or 8 is not an option. So is
>>>> there an easy GUI for formatting or erasing discs that won't leave
>>>> them unmountable? I've looked at "udftools" but it's use is rather
>>>> complex.
>>>>
>>>
>>> What do you really mean by "unmountable"?
>>>
>>> Do you mean that once they are mounted they cannot be unmounted (ie,
>>> cannot use 'umount /dev/sdX)? Or do you mean that you cannot MOUNT the
>>> discs?
>>>
>>> And if it is the latter case (cannot mount them), what setting do you
>>> have in System Settings>Removable Devices? (And if you start Dolphin
>>> does the DVD disc show up in the left-hand window?)
>>>
>>
>> Thanks for replying Basil.
>>
>> By "unmountable" I mean that the discs are not visible to the system.
>>
>> If a DVD is placed into it's drive then the various options are
>> displayed, such as open with Dolphin.
>
> Which means that the disc is recognised  - and you can open it with
> Dolphin. And unless you open it with Dolphin  you won't be able to read
> its contents.
>
>> After the disc is formatted with K3b then nothing happens, apart from
>> the disc spinning for a few moments.
>
> Now this is where I should have read your original post more closely.
>
> You are talking about REWRITABLE discs, right?
>
> Well once they are formatted k3b will not format them again - because
> there is no need to format them again. Any data on a rewritable disc
> will simply be overwritten.
>
> Bottom line therefore is - you format a NEW clean RW disc once and
> that's it.
>
>> The same "unmountable" disk, once reformatted under Windows, is
>> accessible under Linux and can be written to under K3b.
>
> The reason for this I suspect is that Windows uses totally different
> mumbo-jumbo in almost all of the things it does.  I suspect that
> Windows, being the brain dead system that it is, doesn't recognise the
> disc and so reformats it as a new disc and Linux, of course, will see
> this disc because it recognises Windows formats.
>
>> Automatic mounting of all removable devices is enabled under Kubuntu.
>>
>> K3b, has over the years, produced several formatted discs that are not
>> mountable under Linux or Windows.
>
> I have some RW discs which I formatted with k3b. I checked them all a
> few minutes ago and all work fine so the problem is not with k3b.
>
>> I have Xubuntu on another laptop and the faulty discs will not mount
>> on that system either so it's not a mechanical problem or a problem
>> peculiar to KDE.
>>
>> I'm attempting to help two people. One is trying to delete the
>> contents of his DVD collection so that they can be reused in his
>> laptop. The other person records late night TV shows and would like to
>> use his computer to erase the contents of the DVD ready for another
>> recording session. The TV viewer has Windows so I can probably sort
>> him out.
>
> Taking into account what I said above, what happens when you place one
> of these "unmountable" discs in the drive and the menu comes up asking
> you if you want to open the disc using Dolphin and you do just that? If
> the disc is empty then you will see no contents. But what then happens
> if you try to copy a file to this disc?
I think you misunderstood him - as I read his post he states that once 
the RW disc is reformatted using K3B nothing happens. No actions options 
etc, but the disc just spins in the reader a few times