M-Disc details before wasting money?

[Sumleilmus]

I am about to burn some M-Discs (Verbatim labeled, 100GB, 6X). On a nominally 100GB M-Disc can I really put 100.00 GB (one hundred gigabytes) in a burn folder and burn it to disk?

It costs $10 to make a mistake.

Is there a base 2 / base 10 problem that means I should really put no more than, for example, 98.231 GB of files in the burn directory?

Thanks in advance.

 

[saudor]

A bit off topic but I saw this on r/datahoarder so something to think about:

 

[Fishrrman]

I don't believe that any CD/DVD/Bluray/M-DISC that gives the rated capacity of "xxx" is actually going to hold that amount of data.

Formatting, etc., is going to consume a modest amount of usable space.

I will take a GUESS that if the disk is rated to hold 100gb, that when all is said and done (the disc has been successfully burned), you can put about 94-96gb of data onto it.

What are you USING to burn discs?
If you use a commercial burning app (Toast comes to mind), it should alert you when "building" the list of folders/files to be burned, that you've reached the capacity of the disc. It's been a while since I used it... I could be wrong.

There are a couple of shareware/freeware burning apps out there:
- Burn
- Simply Burns
... that ought to be able to tell you this, as well.

hmmm....
With Toast (perhaps with the others), seems to me that one could do a "dry run" before the actual burn. That is, the app would run through its paces with the task-at-hand, but the drive's laser would be switched off. So... you can verify whether or not the burn will be "good" BEFORE you actually do the burnin' ...

 

[Sumleilmus]

A bit off topic but I saw this on r/datahoarder so something to think about:

I think you saved me a lot of money and trouble. Amazon says my first three putative M-Discs (Verbatim) arrive tomorrow. I will examine them with great care, and return them immediately if counterfeit.

 

[Sumleilmus]

I don't believe that any CD/DVD/Bluray/M-DISC that gives the rated capacity of "xxx" is actually going to hold that amount of data.

Formatting, etc., is going to consume a modest amount of usable space.

I will take a GUESS that if the disk is rated to hold 100gb, that when all is said and done (the disc has been successfully burned), you can put about 94-96gb of data onto it.

What are you USING to burn discs?
If you use a commercial burning app (Toast comes to mind), it should alert you when "building" the list of folders/files to be burned, that you've reached the capacity of the disc. It's been a while since I used it... I could be wrong.

There are a couple of shareware/freeware burning apps out there:
- Burn
- Simply Burns
... that ought to be able to tell you this, as well.

hmmm....
With Toast (perhaps with the others), seems to me that one could do a "dry run" before the actual burn. That is, the app would run through its paces with the task-at-hand, but the drive's laser would be switched off. So... you can verify whether or not the burn will be "good" BEFORE you actually do the burnin' ...

It was my plan to burn with the Finder. It remains to be seen if any real M-Discs still exist. (Follow the link send by saudor above.)

 

[Sumleilmus]

Interesting developments: the M-Disc organization web site is full of useless links and their contact tool lacks function.
http://www.mdisc.com/contact.html

 

[Fishrrman]

The following is posted from memory, and I could be wrong.

Seems to me I read that although CD and DVD blank media has always used a dye-based system for burning data, that BD discs (at least as originally designed) did not.

Rather, they used the same non-dye media that M-DISC uses (or at least very similar).

At some later point, Bluray discs also became available that used the older-style "dye" design for recording. These may be the discs designated "BD-R".

I'm thinking one of the motivations for this change may have been lower costs.

So... when buying Bluray blanks, one has to be careful to avoid the "BD-R" blanks, if one wants the "longevity" of M-DISC...

Again, I could be wrong.