ncaahoops had the response below my question on a corrupt? RAM disc (Panasonic disc that came with my new Panny Es15). Essentially I created a bunch of short titles while figuring out how to use the unit and examining different recording speed qualitities. Soon I started to (one by one) delete all the short titles. On the last one, the unit started beeping, said to power down while it 'fixed' the disc. I did so and now the message pop up: UNFORMAT. It will not let me format the disc and it says it is write protected---which I do not believe I did. Anyway, I am looking for one of the experts ncaahoops references below...Can you help?

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I am guessing (only guessing) that perhaps the number of short titles and the one-by-one successive erase may have resulted in some sort of an error on the disc (eg file structure damage). If Disc protection is ON but you never turned it on, it may be another sign of a file structure corruption. I am not sure how to recover, but there are some people in the forum with more extensive DVD-RAM experience than me that may have some suggestions on how to recover from it.

This wasn't supposed to happen, I have done what you did a few times as well. Does the recorder work okay with any other discs you have tried?

I got a quasi-similar thing once while I was editing a DVD-RAM with multiple titles on it and there was (apparently) some glitch and all the contents of the disc were lost (I was merely chopping off the start of a program). But I was able to reformat and reuse the disk.
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ncaahoops had the response below my question on a corrupt? RAM disc (Panasonic disc that came with my new Panny Es15). Essentially I created a bunch of short titles while figuring out how to use the unit and examining different recording speed qualitities. Soon I started to (one by one) delete all the short titles. On the last one, the unit started beeping, said to power down while it 'fixed' the disc. I did so and now the message pop up: UNFORMAT. It will not let me format the disc and it says it is write protected---which I do not believe I did. Anyway, I am looking for one of the experts ncaahoops references below...Can you help?


You have tried to wash the RAM disk that you are having problems with as suggested as the first thing to try per other users in your other post, just thought I would mention it so others know in this thread.

The next thing to do would be to get some more RAM disks ASAP to make sure it is just that disk and not the recorder.

As far as this RAM disk given you trouble, if the recorder will now no longer allow you to format this disk because of the error, if you have access to a computer with RAM compatible DVD burner then you can try to format it with the computer. This will format it for computer use and make incompatible with the Panasonic set top recorders format BUT it may allow it to recover from the corrupt and or "protected" status it is in now and be able to see that it is an unformatted disk for the set top recorder RAM disk and allow the option to format it for use on it.

Although I have not have had any "problem" RAM disks like this I have taken some back and forth over time between formated for Panny set-top-recorders and for data use with computer burners with no problems. Of course, formating will erase any data or programs recorded on the disk...which you do not have to worry about at this time since the disk is messed up already.

If you cannot format it with a computer as suggested above then new RAM disks will tell you if it is just this disk is bad or the recorder.

ok, dumb question. Where do I get RAM discs, what do they cost, and are they the choice for recording tv shows week over week.

CC - 5 pack is $12

I have gotten mine at BestBuy, but on-line computer stores are a good source as -RAM disks are used as computer storage and are readily available for that purpose. I have had to reformat them for the video instead of the computer application, but they work great. The machine prompts me to reformat them, and once that is done, I never have to worry about it again.

I use Panasonic Direct. Currently the best deal appears to be the single diskw/jewel case at $.99 each. 25 pack in cake box is $30. If you join Club Panasonic, the shipping is free.

http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vModelList?storeId=15001&catalogId=13401&catGroupId=25168&orderBy=recommended&cacheProgram=11002&cachePartner=7000000000000005702

Micro Center has Verbatims for like twelve bucks for a five pack. I like them because they're silver, rather than gold like the Pannys and Fujis :rolleyes: .

They also often have TDK double-sided. Good points: They're in a (removable) cartidge, so thy're quite robust, and you can just flip them over rather than hunting for another disc.

Downside: not all computer drives will accept the cartidges (like the new one I bought a couple of weeks ago :( ), and they are expensive, twelve to fifteen bucks each (9.4 GB) :eek: .