Technology in terms you understand. Sign up for the Confident Computing newsletter for weekly solutions to make your life easier. Click here and get The Ask Leo! Guide to Staying Safe on the Internet — FREE Edition as my thank you for subscribing!

Why can’t I burn an ISO to this blank DVD?

Question:

Hi, Leo. I had to burn an ISO file to a DVD. For this purpose, I used this
article, “Would you show me how to burn ISO files?” as the guideline. However,
I keep running into a problem. After I’m done with selecting the required file
as a source, the status bar says that the disc isn’t empty and therefore the
write button never enables. But I don’t see any contents in the DVD when I view
it through Windows Explorer. What do I do?

In this excerpt from
Answercast #75
, I look at a case where a DVD drive is not recognizing a
blank DVD and work through several troubleshooting steps.

Become a Patron of Ask Leo! and go ad-free!

Can’t burn to blank DVD

Well, unfortunately, if you’re not seeing any contents on the DVD when
you’re looking at it, it still may not be blank.

There are actually two possibilities here. One is the disc itself is
actually not blank. Even an empty disc that has had a file system written to it
is technically not blank. So by that measure, it may be that you need to get a
brand new blank DVD and insert it into the drive.

It’s sometimes a matter of quality and that’s the other part of this.
Sometimes, some DVD drives will not recognize some DVD media as being blank
when they are. That’s a matter of the drive not working properly.

Yes, this could be a drive problem. It’s more simple to fix, of course, if
it’s a “quality of media” problem.

Testing to find what’s broken

What I would do is first confirm that you’ve been inserting a truly blank
DVD into the drive. Then go out and get a different brand, potentially a
higher quality brand of DVDs. You don’t have to get many. We’re just doing a
test here. See if that solves the problem; it may.

If it doesn’t, then I’m afraid you’re probably looking at some kind of an
issue with the drive itself.

At that point, I would recommend giving this a quick try on another computer
with the DVDs that you’ve been using (the blank DVDs that you have) and make
sure that they will work somewhere. That will at least help narrow down the
problem.

Do this

Subscribe to Confident Computing! Less frustration and more confidence, solutions, answers, and tips in your inbox every week.

I'll see you there!

4 comments on “Why can’t I burn an ISO to this blank DVD?”

  1. I too have experienced that problem with previously used disks. My solution was to format the disk. That has solved the problem. Of course the original problem might arise when the disk is a
    +/- R disk!

    Reply
  2. If those disks have worked before, and now they don’t it’s a software setting or hardware issue.
    To narrow it down, try, like Leo suggested, to use it on another machine with the same program & disk(s).
    If no go, try different disk(s).
    If still no go, it’s most likely your disk(s).
    If it works with said disks on another machine, than it’s a setting or drive issue.
    Proceed accordingly. It’s a process of trial & error. Take your time & write things down setting wise. Use the “help” button on the software & follow through. It’s how I learn the ins/outs of programs. See if the program you’re using to burn the ISO with, has a forum or help group & ask questions.
    Normally creating an ISO copy of something is no big deal.
    I use Power ISO. Never had a problem.
    Good luck, & if all else fails, try power ISO, they have a free version that is all you could ask for!
    Johnny.

    Reply
  3. Something I have run into, which stems from the good old ‘floppy disk’ era.
    Commercial companies releasing software have, for a long time, used custom disk formats. These formats ‘seem to’ store more on a disk than is normally possible (whether they do or not is a matter for debate), which means if you try to duplicate the contents onto a standard disk the PC simply reports back “Not Enough Space”.
    I have heard of ISO’s between 5gb and 10gb in size, which will certainly be larger than standard DVD’s, and even in some cases too large for the high-capacity DVD’s.
    A simpler method (with the cheapness of memory these days) is to copy the ISO onto a large enough USB stick and use one of a number of free programs to ‘mount’ the ISO as a removeable drive letter.

    Reply

Leave a reply:

Before commenting please:

  • Read the article.
  • Comment on the article.
  • No personal information.
  • No spam.

Comments violating those rules will be removed. Comments that don't add value will be removed, including off-topic or content-free comments, or comments that look even a little bit like spam. All comments containing links and certain keywords will be moderated before publication.

I want comments to be valuable for everyone, including those who come later and take the time to read.