I burned a data DVD-R (Samsung Pleomax 8X, ID: Optodisc R008) for a friend and forgot to "close the disc" (I closed the session). My friend couldn't access the disc at all with several different PCs.

After he used Nero to close the disc he found that some, but not all of the data was then accessible.

Is this a common problem? Is it just the "closing" that was the problem or is media quality also likely to be some of the cause of the difficulty reading?

My writer is a LiteOn SlimType DVDRW SOSW 852S with PRS9 firmware.


Thanks

Not closing a disc can cause some problems, but so can using Optodisc media.

You should always close the disc when giving to a friend, because they won't be able to see all of the data written to the disc. i don't know the technical reason but this has happened to me just when trying to read a disc burned on another one of my cpus. I've also heard dvd+r are better for data because it is technologically a better format, though dvd-r are better for compatibility with older dvd players as far as movie playback is concerned (this is what i've read so please lets not get into a flame war or anything like that ).

Thanks, for the responses. I'll make sure I always close the disc when giving to a friend i future. Also I'll try and get better media! :-)

I know everyone always swears by Taiyo Yuden, but as these are difficult to source at any kind of decent price in the UK (as far as I see), which other "brands" are generally accepted as being "OK". Verbatim?

Verbatim is great, and anything else from a major brand (Fuji, TDK, Maxell, Imation, Memorex) should burn with few problems.