Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

malique · Dec 9, 2004, 04:28 AM

Hello,

I got an LG DVD-RAM drive and just bought a dvd RAM. On the PC (a friend of mine has the same drive) it works flawlessly: just put in the DVD-RAM and use it like a harddisk.

On OS X the finder does not even show it. Toast may delete it but not even burn to it. Right now I am Formatting the whole thing but I was hoping I could get the Finder to using it like a normal HD, as it is meant to be �

Randman · Dec 9, 2004, 04:29 AM

It may need to be reformatted. If it can. Have you tried Disk Utility on it and see what options you get?

malique · Dec 9, 2004, 04:33 AM

Originally posted by Randman:
It may need to be reformatted. If it can. Have you tried Disk Utility on it and see what options you get?

Oh, cool idea! I will, right now, Toast is still formatting. You were really FAST.

malique · Dec 9, 2004, 05:47 AM

works fine! Thank you!

Randman · Dec 9, 2004, 05:53 AM

Originally posted by malique:
works fine! Thank you!

Report back on the experience.

CaptainHaddock · Dec 9, 2004, 04:14 PM

Since DVD-RAM mimics the format of a hard disk, it's not surprising that discs would come formatted for NTFS (the Windows NT/XP file system), making a reformat necessary. You'll probably get better performance on it than your PC friends, now that it's formatted with HFS+.

malique · Dec 9, 2004, 06:05 PM

Originally posted by CaptainHaddock:
Since DVD-RAM mimics the format of a hard disk, it's not surprising that discs would come formatted for NTFS (the Windows NT/XP file system), making a reformat necessary. You'll probably get better performance on it than your PC friends, now that it's formatted with HFS+.

In fact I formatted it with UFS to be compatible with my PC friends. In fact � it's NOT. We both have the same LG drive and even when he reformatted it with UFS 2.0 (remember UNIX FILE SYSTEM) it won't even show up here. DVD-RAM is a promise never fulfilled.

Theodour · Dec 9, 2004, 11:01 PM

Originally posted by malique:
In fact I formatted it with UFS to be compatible with my PC friends. In fact � it's NOT. We both have the same LG drive and even when he reformatted it with UFS 2.0 (remember UNIX FILE SYSTEM) it won't even show up here. DVD-RAM is a promise never fulfilled.

Do you mean UDF?.
If so, you'll be happy to know that apple's support of this format is incomplete. You can read about it here. Scroll down or search for "UDF CDs".

osxrules · Dec 11, 2004, 02:28 PM

It's good you got an LG drive to work. I heard you needed patchburn to get them to be recognised in OS X.

I posted on the Roxio/toast website and Pioneer was the recommended make. I'm thinking of getting a dvd-ram burner but I want to be able to mount the dvd-ram discs from my video recorder. If it's in some PC format, I guess I'm screwed.

BTW, do you have some specs for your LG drive like all the read/write speeds, model number etc and have you had any problems? Some people can't burn audio cds and things.

Luca Rescigno · Dec 11, 2004, 03:40 PM

Originally posted by Theodour:
Do you mean UDF?.

No, he doesn't. UFS = Unix File System. Apparently if you format it in UFS in a Mac, PCs can't read it, and if you format in UFS on a PC, Macs can't read it. Which is dumb.

I think Macs have limited FAT32 support. You might try formatting them in FAT32 for cross-compatibility, though I wouldn't expect the Mac to read it very fast. It might not even be able to write to FAT32, but I haven't tried.

malique · Dec 11, 2004, 09:14 PM

Originally posted by osxrules:
It's good you got an LG drive to work. I heard you needed patchburn to get them to be recognised in OS X.

I posted on the Roxio/toast website and Pioneer was the recommended make. I'm thinking of getting a dvd-ram burner but I want to be able to mount the dvd-ram discs from my video recorder. If it's in some PC format, I guess I'm screwed.

BTW, do you have some specs for your LG drive like all the read/write speeds, model number etc and have you had any problems? Some people can't burn audio cds and things.

Hum, I have the HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4082B and it works flawlessly with everything. Just plug it into a G4 (mine was g4/400 sawtooth) or G5 and it works immediately. No patch/drivers whatever. A true Mac experience.

Theodour · Dec 12, 2004, 12:50 AM

I really think you are confusing UDF with UFS. I don't think Windows machines can read UFS -- at least out of the box.

Theodour · Dec 12, 2004, 01:00 AM

Originally posted by Luca Rescigno:
No, he doesn't. UFS = Unix File System. Apparently if you format it in UFS in a Mac, PCs can't read it, and if you format in UFS on a PC, Macs can't read it. Which is dumb.

I think Macs have limited FAT32 support. You might try formatting them in FAT32 for cross-compatibility, though I wouldn't expect the Mac to read it very fast. It might not even be able to write to FAT32, but I haven't tried.

Ok, look here.