DVDs burned from Finder don't verify

[Doctor Q]

I'm trying to back up files from my Mirrored Drive Door Power Mac G4 with a 2x SuperDrive. I keep getting verification errors after burning a DVD-R.

I have tried both Apple-branded and Memorex-branded DVD-Rs; both gave me verification errors. With the Apple media, the disk structure was lost, making the DVD useless. With the Memorex media, Disk Utility was able to mount the DVD despite errors that its Verify function detected, but it takes many minutes to display the contents of a folder on the DVD and I get errors trying to open individual files (e.g., "unrecognized file format" when trying to open a jpeg among the files I copied). Therefore, neither of my backups is useable.

What is the most likely cause? Very bad luck by having two bad DVDs by separate manufacturers? A bad Superdrive? Writing at 2x is too fast?

 

[krimson]

I had a similar problem, try using a DVD/CD drive cleaning disc first.
If that doesn't help, and burning at 1x doesn't help, i'd say it's a drive problem.

 

[Doctor Q]

Update: Burning at 1x didn't help. A third DVD-R got verification errors.

I wanted to see if they were write errors or read errors so I tried reading the bad DVDs in two Macs. On the Mac where I burned them, none of them are readable. One another Mac, one of them is readable but Disk Utility reports errors. So I conclude it is a problem during writing.

Has anyone found that using a drive cleaning disc solved such a problem? Did you, krimson?

 

[krimson]

I used the cleaning disc on a SCSI Yamaha cd-r/w i had on my Powerbase back in the day, but that was due to my room being... smokey.
When my DVR-106 had the problem, the cleaning disc didn't help, nor did reflashing the firm in my mums PC, had the same problem in her PC as well as my G4. I found it wierd that all the problems with the 106 started the day after i moved to 10.3.9, though i have no proof that it's the culprit.

I just took it as a loss, left it on her PC, so she could watch dvd's and stuff. It'll still burn, but 1/2 of the data discs are unreadable, and burned movie dvd's stutter for a few second at the error but they still play.

 

[yellow]

If nothing else, a drive cleaner is a cheap troubleshooting solution. I too tend to think this is a hardware related problem. If you want to upgrade your DVR, OWC offers OEM Pioneer DVR-109s [Pioneer DVR-109 Dual Layer DVD Recordable Drive 16X DVD-R/+R, 6X DVD-R/+R DL Writer] for $70. If you're using Panther, PatchBurn3 will make it usable with all Apple apps, and if you're using Tiger, it'll be recognized automatically. They are super-easy to put in too..

 

[Doctor Q]

Thanks for the tips!

I suspect I have a bad drive and that replacing it sounds sensible.

In the meantime, since I have the luxury of having multiple Macs in the house, I copied my important folders to another Mac that has a Superdrive, archived them to keep the size under control, and got my DVD backups. Now I feel safely backed up again.

 

[cb911]

i've had maybe a similar problem >> https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/129807/
(please help)

but perviously i'd burnt other DVD's perfectly fine, now my bro got some new DVD's and thinks i need a firmware update to burn on the blue azo's or something.