Unmountable DVDs

[Phil]

On 10/31/2013 05:00 PM, O. Sinclair wrote:
> 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
>

That's exactly what happens.

-- 
Regards,
Phil