how to erase a rw dvd

Erase a CD or DVD

Windows 7 

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Rewritable CDs (for example, CD-RW discs) and rewritable DVDs (for example, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, or DVD+RAM) can be erased and written to many times. After you erase a rewritable CD, DVD, or Blu‑ray Disc, you can format the disc and burn files to it again. For more information, see Burn a CD or DVD in Windows Explorer.

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To erase all of the files on a disc

You can erase all the files at one time on a rewritable disc, such as CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, or DVD-RAM discs. You can do this for discs that use either the Live File System or Mastered disc format. The following steps for erasing a disc won't work for recordable discs, such as CD-R, DVD-R, or DVD+R discs.

1. Insert the rewritable disc, such as a CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, or DVD-RAM disc, into your computer's CD, DVD, or Blu‑ray Disc burner.
2. Open Computer by clicking the Start button , and then clicking Computer.
3. In Windows Explorer, click the CD, DVD, or Blu‑ray Disc burner icon.
4. On the toolbar, click Erase this disc, and then follow the steps in the wizard.

To delete one or more files on a disc

If you have a rewritable disc (such as a CD-RW or DVD-RW disc) or recordable disc (such as a CD-R or DVD-R disc) formatted using the Live File System, you can delete one, some, or all the files on the disc.

1. Insert the recordable or rewritable disc into your computer's CD, DVD, or Blu‑ray Disc burner.
2. Open Computer by clicking the Start button , and then clicking Computer.
3. Double-click the CD, DVD, or Blu‑ray Disc burner icon in Windows Explorer to view the files on the disc.
4. Select the files or folders that you want to delete.
   To select more than one file, press and hold the Ctrl key, and then click the files you want to delete.
5. Press the Delete key.

FORMAT WINDOWS XP

This explains step-by-step how to format hard drive partition using the Windows XP installation CD.

Before you continue, make sure you have backup of all documents you may need that are saved in C:, My Documents folder or your desktop.

Tip: Click the images to enlarge.

• Step 1- Installation CD Insert your Windows XP installation disc into your CD or DVD drive.
• Step 2 – Restart your computer and start Windows setup usingMicrosoft Windows bootable XP disk
• Restart your computer. As you computer boots, a screen with message “Press any key to boot from CD..” will show up counting from 9 to 0, here you need to press any key to start the setup. Note: If your computer doesn’t display the “Press any key to boot from CD..” message (by default it should), check your motherboard manual for info where to enable the “Boot from CD” setting, after you enable “Boot from CD” option from your BIOS, the message will show.
• Step 3 – System Loading
  After you enter the setup, the CD will load up a blue screen and will start loading operating system files (this make take few minutes). When it finishes, it will list a few options, “Press ENTER to set up Windows XP now” is the one we need. Click it.
• Step 4 – Accept Windows usage agreement
  Second screen is “The windows usage agreement”. It should be displayed now, showing that you need to press F8 to accept the agreement. Press F8 to accept. How to format a computer
• Step 5 – Setup start
  If an existing Windows XP installation is detected by the system, you are prompted to repair it. We will bypass this step
• Step 6 – Delete old partition and format
  At this point you need to select the partition where you prefer to install Windows Xp. This is where you will delete your partition and format drive C. The box in the lower half of the screen shows all your drives and the partitions that currently exist on your hard disk. Use the Up and Down Arrow keys to highlight/select your “C:” partition and press the “D” key (pic 6.1). On the next screen press the ‘L’ key (pic 6.2) to confirm that you want to delete partition “C:”, and finalize the deleting of the partition. (if you have only “Unpartitioned space” and you have no C: or D: partitions, skip this step) How to format a computer
• Step 7 – Create installation partition
  Now you should be back on the screen prompted to choose where to install Windows. The box on the lower half of the screen should no longer show a partition, instead of “C:” you should see “Unpartitioned space xxxxxMB”. Select/highlight this with the arrow keys and press the “C” key to create a partition on the drive (this is where you will install windows). Now setup tells you the minimum and maximum sizes the partition can use and lets you pick the size. The default size is the maximum available, leave the default value and press Enter.
• Step 8 – Format the computer (the hard disk)
  This screen lets you choose the file system you prefer the drive to be formatted with. Choose NTFS “Quick” (recommended because NTFS is faster and more secure). Use the arrow keys to select and hit Enter. How to format a computer
• Step 9 – Start Windows XP Setup Setup will start to and will auto-format the “C:” partition, and start with Windows XP installation. From here you are all set and the installation of Windows will proceed. This will take a while. The computer will reboot several times, and will continue with installation. Don’t remove the Windows XP setup CD, and don’t press a key when prompted (we already did that).

FORMAT WINDOWS VISTA

Installing clean version ofWindows Vista.

Usually people formatwindows vista in try to fix their system, repair some functionality or upgrade from windows XP.
Recommended: If you are not sure about your computer hardwarecompatibility with Windows Vista, get this Upgrade Advisor andcheck your system compatibility. Next make sure that you have the Drivers CD (that came when you’ve purchased your PC), or if you don’t have them, download the latest Vista drivers for your hardware (you can find them at the support section of your hardware manufacturer, remember to save them to different partition than “C:” (don’t save them in MyDocuments folder, it will get deleted with the formatting), safest way is to store them in other partition than C: (ex. D: , E: , removable drive like USB or burn them on a CD/DVD)

Now after you are sure that your PC is compatible with Vista, and you have all the drivers saved, you can proceed with FormattingWindows Vista.

• Step 1. Insert your Windows Vista DVD. The DVD is bootable so after you restart your PC (with the DVD inside) theWindows Vista Setup will begin loading ( if the setup doesn’t start automatically, make another restart and press F2, or F8 after the boot screen and select boot from DVD ).
• Step 2. The first screen of the Format Windows Vista sequence will show up. At this point you need to select your Language and Time and currency format (click the image to enlarge). Press Next.
Step 3. Press Install Now
• Step 4. After a min you will be asked for your Product Key.
  Scenario 1: If you don’t have your product key, you can skip this step and at the next step you will be asked to pick VistaPackage that you want to install : Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate. If you install windows vistawithout providing product key, after 14 days you will have to enter a valid product key, or if you don’t, you’ll be forced to format windows vista again. This is good if you want to test which windows vista version is best for you, before your purchase.
  Scenario 2: You enter your product key (keep it handy!), and at the next screen your purchased version will be auto-recognized.
• Step 5. Accept the Microsoft Windows User License Terms and press Next
• Step 6. Dialog – “Which type of installation do you want ?”
  Scenario 1: If you already have another operating systeminstalled (ex. Windows XP) you will have the Upgrade option enabled. It’s up to you to decide if you prefer “clean” install or upgrading from previous Windows Installation. Clean install is recommended for improving system performance, and Upgrade Setup is recommended if you have some files in your C: , My Documents, or Desktop folders that you don’t want deleted.
  Scenario 2: You already have operating system installed but you want to format your drive, deleting the old system and installing fresh Windows Vista copy. In that case select the C: drive and press Format ( don’t format all drives! only the primary where we are installing Windows Vista – ” C: “. The setup will do the rest.
• Step 7. Select Disk 0 and click Next
• Step 8. The copy process will begin. This process can take some time, so relax a bit, make a coffee or something :D . Your input won’t be required here for some time.
• Step 9. After Windows Vista Setup finishes, the computer will reboot.
• Step 10. Windows Vista files are copied , and now setup will configure Windows Vista for your PC. This step will take some really good time.
• Step 11. Installing Windows Vista finishes, insert your User Name and Password here.
• Step 12. Give your PC a name! and select one of the colorful backgrounds
• Step 13. Select your preferred security settings. If this computer is not behind a firewall, the best option is the ” Use Recommended settings”. If you are using firewall then you can select “Install important updates only” (Windows Update). If you want to be protected and your Windows Vista to have the latest updates from Microsoft , select the first option.
• Step 14. Select your time zone and location.
• Step 15. Network Configuration – Select your computer location. This settings sets your network permissions.
• Step 15. This is self explanatory :) Welcome to your newWindows Vista Operating System

• Step 16. After you press Start, some Windows Vista settings will be upgraded automatically.
• Step 17. You now need to install some drivers that the system will not install automatically.

Thats it! You’ve finished installing Windows Vista.

FORMAT WINDOWS 7

Windows 7 is far better than previous windows versions (XP and Vista). The install process is plain simple and easy to follow. Big Bravo! for Microsoft for this. Now, just follow these steps and you will install windows 7 in no time

You can Install Windows 7 via DVD Disk you’ve purchased or with bootable USB.

This post explains installing windows 7 with dvd disk.

- 31 steps total, every step is screen-captured

First, insert your Windows 7 Boot Disk into your dvd drive and reboot your PC

• While the PC is rebooting, you will be prompted ” Press any key to boot from CD…” Just press any key here
  
  
• After you press a key, windows will load installation files.
• Windows 7 setup will start
• Select your language, time and currency format and keyboard input (US)
• Click Install Now to proceed
• Setup will load for a min or two
• If you do, select I accept the license terms and click Next
• If you are upgrading from Windows Vista select Upgrade, if you had Windows XP you have to select Custom (Advanced). Upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 is not available. Click Custom (Advanced)
• Select the Partition where you want to install Windows 7 and click Next. You will need at least 5716mb free space.
• If you don’t have enough free space to Install Windows 7, you will receive the following warning
• If that’s the case, you will need to format the partition where you previously had Operating System installed. WARNING: Formatting a partition will erase all existing data on the partition, proceed only if you have backed up all your files!
• If you want to format the partition, go to Drive options
  and format the partition where you want to install windows 7. Again, do this only if you have backed up your documents/files!
  click format and then yes
• After you press Next, Windows 7 Installation will begin. Approximately takes about 30 min to 1 hour to finish, depending on your computer speed.
• After half an hour, setup is complete and windows 7 installation is almost finished. Few more minutes
• Now your computer will reboot, since the Windows 7 DVD boot disk is still in the drive, the message press any key to boot from DVD will appear. We already did that, so this time DO NOT press anything. Just wait 5 sec and your PC will continue booting and finish installing your operating system.
• Windows will continue booting and installing, almost there!


• Finally!
  Insert your name (this will be your windows username)
• If you want to, insert password for your computer. ( Hey….you won’t forget it, right? :) )
• Insert your Windows 7 product key and press Next
• Do you want Microsoft Updates for your new operating system? It is highly recommend you know…! Select use recommended settings
• It’s time for Time zone, select yours from the drop down menu
• Depending on your location, select the appropriate network location.
• If you have more than 1 computer, type homegroup password for sharing files. Make sure to remember it
• Windows is finalizing your settings
• Can you see the finish line ? Yup, we’re there
• That’s it. Now insert your computer manufacturer drivers CD and install drivers. Also FYI, Windows 7 has great driver support, go to Start –> Control Panel –> Select View By = Small Icons –> Click Windows Update
• Check for updates and click on optional updates, to see which drivers windows 7 found for your computer automatically.
• 
• here is the final screen of the setup

HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool to format corrupted memorycard

HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool is a tiny Windows-based format utility for HP Drive Key or DiskOnKey USB drive. 



Key features 

- How to use it? 
To use it, you only have to specify the device you would like to format. Then, you need to choose the file system and rename your device. Finally, specify quick format or enable compression. With this tool, you can create a DOS startup disk with internal MS-DOS system file or with file on a specific path. 

- What sets it apart from Windows formatting tool? 
HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool allows the user to choose USB drive, while with Windows you cannot do so. In addition, with this tool, it is possible to create a FAT32 volume whose size is more than 32 GB, to give a new name to USB drives as one likes it, to create bootable USB drives, to remove malware and to delete space. 

- What file types are supported? 
HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool can format the USB stick with the following file systems: FAT, FAT32 and NTFS. This latter allows you to get more available storage if you enable data compression. 

System Requirements 

Win 98, 2000, ME, XP, XP Media Center, Vista 

Pros: 
- Possibility to rename the drive. 
- More powerful than Windows formatting tool. 
- Very compact. 

Cons: 
- A little bit difficult to install

How to repair hard disk drive? How to eliminate displayed hard disk problems?

How to repair hard disk drive? How to eliminate displayed hard disk problems?

There are different kind of hard disk problems you may experience. First, if Hard Disk Sentinel shows suggestions about improving the situation (for example by changing/improving the data and power cables and connections, verify power supply, improve cooling) it is recommended to do it prior any further steps.

Then it is important to verify if the hard disk status is stable and there are no further problems with the hard disk surface which would need to be corrected. Please check How can I perform a deep analysis? section for details about using the tests in Hard Disk Sentinel (PRO) software to reveal and fix hard disk problems and making the hard disk surface more stable.

If the hard disk surface test completes successfully, without reporting any errors (even if the health is lower than 100% and bad sectors are displayed in the text description), these bad sectors are no longer used by the hard disk. Instead, a spare area is used for all reads and writes targeting those bad sectors. This means that disk surface tests (even the tests in Hard Disk Sentinel) does not access those sectors, but tests the remaining data area and the spare area - this is why only "green" (perfect) blocks reported:

By using the test, you verified that the currently used data area is error-free, there seems no further errors reported (no weak, damaged sectors, no further problems).

Clearing reported errors

In this case, you can manually acknowledge the reported problems in Hard Disk Sentinel, to clear the error(s) reported from the text description and restore the health to 100%. That way the software will no longer display these problems, just reports any possible new problems, errors (if will happen in the future).

To do this, please open the S.M.A.R.T. page of the hard disk in Hard Disk Sentinel. Locate the attribute(s) marked with yellow exclamation mark (!) and check the number reported in the "Data" field (or the number of errors displayed in the text description). Please enter the same value but with negative sign to the "Offset" column in the appropriate row. It is possible that two or more attribute(s) are marked, then you would need to perform these steps with all affected attributes.

For example, consider the text description of the following hard disk drive (90% health):

There are 8 bad sectors on the disk surface.  The contents of these sectors were moved to the spare area.

And its S.M.A.R.T. panel:

On the S.M.A.R.T. panel, you may see that attribute "5 Reallocated sectors count" is marked and the data column is 0008, then you should specify "-8" in the offset column for that attribute. Also the attribute "196 Reallocation Event Count" is affected, there you should specify "-4" in the offset column, like on this image:

Notice that the yellow exclamation marks are eliminated, the current health restore to 100%, and the text description changes as well:

The hard disk status is PERFECT.  Problematic or weak sectors were not found and there are no spin up or data transfer errors.

Please note that the "Data" column is displayed as hexadecimal, so you may need to right click and select "Decimal data field" prior using the offset. For example if you see "0022" (hexadecimal value) in the Data column, you should enter "-34" (in this case "34 bad sectors found ..." reported in the text description).

You may use Report -> Send test report to developer option, then we can check and advise about the proper values should be used for the different attributes.

If the offsets are set properly, the hard disk health should increase (and finally restore to 100%) and the reported errors will be cleared from the text description.

Hard disk problems

It is important to know that this is a "virtual" clearing of problems. It is not possible to completely eliminate (clear) the error-counters of a hard disk by any means, because the affected hard disk component (read/write heads, surface, etc.) not really replaced, just the working conditions are changed.

It is possible that (because of the errors were previously reported) in the future new problems may be reported. So it is recommended to use Hard Disk Sentinel for constant monitoring on these repaired hard disks and make backup and full testing again if the reported health start to decrease again (even with 1%).

For more information about bad sectors, please click on the "?" next to the text description and check I have bad sectors... and How can I perform a deep analysis?sections. You may also consider checking Hard disk cases about typical and special hard disk problems, their solutions.

Please note that if the hard disk has really high amount of problems (and the health % displayed is 0%) then the hard disk can't be repaired. When 0% health displayed, should ask for warranty replacement of the hard disk.

Is it possible to repair SSD, restore SSD health ?

In general even if the SSD is perfect (the text description shows no errors, no bad sectors/bad memory cells or similar problems), the health of the SSD may slowly but constantly decrease. This is caused by writes to the SSD and the fact that the memory cells tolerate only limited amount of overwrite passes.

The wear-leveling feature of the SSD tries to minimise this effect - but can't be totally eliminated.

Most SSDs have model-specific S.M.A.R.T. attribute(s) to indicate the general "health" of the SSD memory cells. For example, "209 Remaining Drive Life", "231 SSD life left" and so. (just select that attribute on the S.M.A.R.T. page, you can check how it changed over time on the graph below the list). These are identified by Hard Disk Sentinel and used to determine the actual health of the SSD.

If the health of the SSD decreases, it is possible that the data stored in the memory cells will become damaged or lost.

Because this is expected behaviour, it is not possible to "repair" or restore the health (the memory cells are not replaces with new ones).

repair any drives

Remove write protection from a USB key via the the Registry

Issue

This a very common problem when using USB flash drives. Sometimes when you try to copy or delete files you get an error message "Remove the write-protection or use another disk". Furthermore, it won't allow you to format it! 

Solution

To remove write protection:

• Open Start Menu >> Run, type regedit and press Enter. This will open the registry editor.

• Navigate to the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

• Double click the key WriteProtect in the right pane and set the value to 0

• In the Data Value Box, press OK

• Exit Registry, restart your computer and then re-connect your USB pen drive to your computer.