[KappaWing]

I just bought an external DVD RW drive, a Nexxtech to be specific. It reads DVDs fine, but when I go and try to explore a blank DVD thru windows explorer it just says there is nothing in the drive. The drive came with a Nero CD, but I REALLY dont want to install that. Should I be able to access blank DVDs on the drive without a driver?

[Tyrian]

Nero isn't a driver, it's a CD burning utility.  However, you should still be able to access a blank CD.  If it were me , I'd install Nero and see if it makes a difference.  You can always remove it later.

BTW, why don't you want to install Nero?  From what I've heard it's a very good program.

[KappaWing]

Last time I installed Nero it pretty much hijacked my computer, granted it was the full install of Nero ultimate, a mistake i will never make again as the damage done to my computer (registry clogging, debris everywhere) was only fixable by a full reformat. After a few other methods I finally took your advice and installed a few select components of Nero. I still cannot access it thru windows explorer as I wanted to but Nero effectively helps me accomplish exactly what I wanted it to do. Long story short - Problem solved!

Thanks!

EDIT: On the NERO CD it said "drivers and drive manuals" but only Nero was on the CD. I figured the driver must somehow be bundled in with Nero but it seems like the case is that there is no driver, windows explorer will simply refuse to work with DVDs, you need a program like Alcohol or Nero to access it.

[jr2]

Umm, a blank DVD?  You mean RW disc, right?  For those, you need Nero .. erg I forgot the name, but it basically formats your DVD RW (or CDRW) for use as a drag-n-drop file system.  But it's only one small application, you don't need all of Nero to use it.  now if I could just remember the name...  EDIT:  UDF Read?  something like that UDF something or another.  EDIT2: Googled that, it's Nero InCD

[Davros]

you cannot access or explore a blank disc

[jr2]

...unless it is re-writeable, and formatted with a UDF utility. 

EDIT:  It appears I'm wrong... CD / DVD - Rs are supported as well as - RWs:

Revisions of the UDF format

UDF has been released in multiple revisions:

    * Revision 1.02 (August 30, 1996). This format is used by DVD-Video discs.
    * Revision 1.50 (February 4, 1997). Added support for (virtual) rewritability on CD-R/DVD-R media by introducing the VAT structure. Added sparing tables for defect management on rewritable media such as CD-RW, and DVD-RW and DVD+RW.
    * Revision 2.00 (April 3rd, 1998). Added support for Stream Files and real-time files (for DVD recording) and simplified directory management. VAT support was extended.
    * Revision 2.01 (March 15, 2000) is mainly a bugfix release to UDF 2.00. Many of the UDF standard's ambiguities were resolved in version 2.01.
    * Revision 2.50 (April 30, 2003). Added the Metadata Partition facilitating metadata clustering and optional duplication of file system information.
    * Revision 2.60 (March 1, 2005). Added Pseudo OverWrite method for drives supporting pseudo overwrite capability on sequentially recordable media.

For next releases of UDF, changes are discussed in relation to using UDF on very large hard disk media, and using UDF on holographic storage media.

Flavors of UDF

While the UDF specification has never been explicit about it, all UDF revisions since 1.5 actually describe three different variations of the format. For lack of an official name from OSTA they are called flavors here.

These flavors are:

    * Plain (Random Read/Write Access). This is the original format supported in all UDF revisions
    * VAT (Incremental Writing). Used specifically for writing to CD-R and DVD-R (write-once) media
    * Spared (Limited Random Write Access). Used specifically for writing to CD-RW and DVD-RW (rewritable) media

Plain (original) flavor

This format can be used on any type of disk that allows random read/write access, such as hard disks and DVD-RAM media. Similar to other common file system formats, such as FAT, directory entries point directly to the block numbers of their file contents. When writing to such a disk in this format, any physical block on the disk may be chosen for allocation of new or updated files.

Since this is the basic format, practically any OS or File System Driver claiming support for UDF should be able to read this format.

VAT flavor

DVD-R and CD-R media has some limitations when being written to: Every physical block can only be written to once, and writing must happen incrementally.

This means that the plain UDF flavor can only be written to CD-Rs by pre-mastering the data and then writing all data in one piece to the media, similar to the way ISO 9660 gets written to CD media.

To allow CD-R to be used virtually like hard disks, meaning that you could add and modify files on a CD-R at will (so-called drive letter access on Windows), OSTA added the VAT flavor to the UDF standard.

The VAT is an additional structure on the disk that helps remapping physical blocks when files or other data on the disc gets modified. The nature of the write-once media leads to the effect that when a file gets first added and later deleted on the disk, the file's data still remains on the disk. While it does not appear in the directory any more, special tools may be used to access the previous state of the disc before the delete occurred, making recovery possible. Additionally, incremental writing also means that eventually the disk will be full and free space cannot be recovered by deleting files. This behavior can be used to an advantage for archiving data, though.

Understanding this VAT structure's contents is necessary to be able to read such written discs as well, but not all UDF file systems support this flavor. See also chapter "Why your computer might not read a particular UDF disk" below.

Spared (RW) flavor

DVD-RW and CD-RW media have fewer limitations than DVD-R and CD-R media: While sectors can be rewritten at random, these sectors may "wear out" after a while, meaning that their data becomes unreliable after having been rewritten too often (typically after a few hundred rewrites with CD-RW).

RW media can be erased entirely at any time, making it blank again, ready for writing a new UDF or other file system (e.g. ISO 9660 or CD Audio) to it. The wear-out effect is not an issue here unless the disk gets erased more than a few hundred times or the Spared flavor was used.

RW disks may be formatted in the plain UDF flavor, in the VAT flavor and in the Spared flavor.

The consequences of using these flavors are as follows:

    * When using the plain flavor, in theory a disc driver may allow rewriting any disc sector at random, meaning the RW is truly rewritable in the fashion of hard disks. However, because of the wear-out effect, this would soon lead to loss of data. For that reason, if a plain UDF file system is written to RW media, the file system should lock (write protect) the UDF volume to prevent accidental modification by a computer, or better, disc drivers should never even attempt to provide random-write access to RW media unless they can assure that no data loss due to wear-out can happen.
    * When using the VAT flavor, RW media effectively appears as CD-R or DVD+/-R media to the computer. However, the media may be erased again at any time.
    * Finally, the Spared flavor works basically like the plain flavor, but uses an extra Sparing Table to remap worn-out sectors. This allows reclaiming most of the disk's space when deleting a file.

Understanding this Sparing Table is necessary to be able to read discs written in this flavor. The problem is that some existing versions of UDF File System software ignore this extra information and treat such UDF discs as if they had the plain flavor. As long as the media has no worn-out sectors, this does not matter - the files can be read properly. But once sectors are remapped, a File System not paying attention to the Sparing Table will read outdated sectors, leading to retrieval of the wrong data.

Why a computer might not read a particular UDF disk

Even if a computer claims to be able to read UDF 1.50, it still may only support the plain flavor but not the VAT or Spared flavors.

An example is Mac OS X (10.4.5), which claims to support UDF 1.50 (see man mount_udf), yet it can only mount disks of the plain flavor properly (it cannot mount UDF disks with a VAT at all, see Sony Mavica problem, and while it appears to be able to mount CD-RWs written with a Sparing Table, it does not read its files correctly in the case that files are actually remapped).

[KappaWing]

Umm, a blank DVD?  You mean RW disc, right?  For those, you need Nero .. erg I forgot the name, but it basically formats your DVD RW (or CDRW) for use as a drag-n-drop file system.  But it's only one small application, you don't need all of Nero to use it.  now if I could just remember the name...  EDIT:  UDF Read?  something like that UDF something or another.  EDIT2: Googled that, it's Nero InCD

Yes but I'm talking about DVD-Rs not DVD-RWs. It seems like you use InCD to format DVD-RWs for drag-n-drop but for DVD-Rs you need to go thru the Nero program thats used to add data to a CD. (forgot the name)

[Ghostavo]

Burning ROM?

[jr2]

OH, heck, for that, just use CD Burner XP Pro v. 3.0.116 .