Long erase with DVD+RW with SONY DRU-500A

[dkabal]

Initial erase takes forever, and stalls, now that I've recently changed from DVD-R to DVD+RW media as recommended by the device notes for the writer.

 

I'm using newest drivers, updates, etc, and I've just installed the newest firmware (g rev) for the drive.

 

The media is RITEK 4.7 GB DVD+RW. Side note, the Windows XP dialog came up when I inserted the new media, which I subsequently cancelled.

 

What's going on here?

 

Thanks,

Dave

[dkabal]

Update: The erase on the DVD+RW takes approximately 20 minutes per disk. Although the write time is much improved, the overall time on one disk is a little longer because of the long erase. Also, the DVD+RWs are marked 4.7 GB, but Retrospect says each one only accommodates 4.3 GB.

 

What gives?

 

Thanks,

Dave

[bobsch]

I popped in here for two reasons:

 

1. My DRU-500A erases my TDK DVD+RW media in seconds.

2. I'm running Retrospect 5.6 and it doesn't recognize the DRU-500A.

 

I'm guessing you are running Retro 6 and it supports the DRU-500A.

Is that correct? If so, they probably won't update 5.6 to handle the DRU-500A.

[AmyJ]

This drive requires Retrospect 6.0 and Retrospect Driver Update 3.4.106 for support. At this time, our engineering efforts need to focus on the latest release of Retrospect, and a frequent and consistent release schedule does not allow us to add support for new drives in previous versions of Retrospect.

 

[mgatehouse]

I'm thinking of purchasing a DRU-500A to use primarily for backup. Have you solved the long erase time? Would you recommend using this drive? Any rough idea of how long Retrospect will take to write a full DVD or the MB/min figure?