My DVD's Are Being Erased After They Are Played

I have a dv9700t laptop which I have had for about 4 months. I am running Windows Vista 32 byte.

I have downloaded a number of smaller videos and burned them to a number of DVDs using the windows DVD burning software. I have been watching a lot them lately. On two occasions after watching some of the videos and then reinserting the disc to watch more of them, the titles have disappeared. When I check the properties it shows the disc almost full but nothing is on it. I have tried to play the DVD on another computer and it can't read anything either. While playing my DVD’s in general, I have noticed that when I try to eject them either from explorer or pushing the button on the drive, it sometimes takes a long time to eject. Sometime the window opens at the bottom of the screen that says something to the effect of: "Please wait till the session is finished so the DVD can be read on other computers." It is the same message that pops up when you hit eject after the computer has finished writing to the DVD. I have been using the windows burning format that allows for additional writing to the DVD’s.

My assumption is windows is mistakenly erasing my DVDs when I hit the eject button. I don't know for sure if this is the case, I just know I can no longer read any titles on the DVDs when it happens. The problem is intermittent, and i am not doing anything after playing them except hit the eject button. I am going to burn my future full DVD’s with the format that doesn't allow for any additional writing to the discs, in the hope that this will prevent the erasure.

Has this happened to anyone else and do they know how to remedy it?
Any insight will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Have you tried the DVD's on a different computer? Windows doesnt just erase dvd's like that.

 

I have tried to play the DVD on another computer and it can't read anything either.

For some reason I can watch a few videos on the dvd and it works fine. I can eject it and then reinsert it and all the titles are gone. Using explorer the DVD shows up empty. Sometimes when I try to eject the DVD it takes a long time before the drive opens up and the "wait till session is closed window..." pops up. That is why I think that Windows is writing to the disc and erasing it's titles.

 

First, I assume you are using DVD-R or DVD+R, not DVD-RW, is that correct?

When you create a multi-session CD or DVD as you are you always must include the previous session(s) along with the new session when recording or only the newest session will be viewable or playable. The previous sessions will still be on the disk only you can’t see or access them. That is just the way it is.

Now just why after you PLAY a DVD and then try to play it again you cannot, I can’t explain, unless somehow your software is writing a blank session to the DVD. The sure way to eliminate this is to write only single session DVD’s and close them after the session is written. Burning full DVD’s in a single session is the way to go.

What DVD burning program are you using?

Edit: Oh, by the way, DVD-R or DVD+R cannot be erased. You can only erase DVD-RW's or DVD-RAM.

 

I am using DVD-Rs and am using the burn program that is a part of Windows Vista 32 byte.

Since when I eject the disc the same window sometimes pops up that does when Windows has finished burning a DVD; it is likely that Windows is for some unknown reason writing a new session and destroying the disc’s contents. I will burn complete sessions on my discs in the future to avoid the problem but I wonder why this is intermittently happening.

 

you should just burn the DVD as Disc-at-Once/Close-at-Once and select one recording only.

 

Thanks, that is what I am going to do.