You might know how to format an iPhone, but do you know how to format a DVD-RW? Stands for 'Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable.' A DVD-RW is like a DVD-R but can be erased and written to again. Like CD-RWs, DVD-RWs must be erased in order for new data to be added. DVD-RWs can hold 4.7GB of data and do not come in double-layered or double-sided versions like DVD-Rs do. Because of their large capacity and ability to be used multiple times, DVD-RW discs are a great solution for frequent backups. So today we will talk about how to format DVD-RW on Mac and how to rewrite it as well.
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Preparation: What you need to know to format DVD-RW on a Mac
American keyboard mac. A Quality Budget External DVD Drive. Dell DW316 is a slim, easy to use external DVD. Watch DVD movies on your Mac. Play DVDs using your built-in DVD drive or an external DVD drive, such as a SuperDrive. How to watch a DVD movie.
Make sure your Mac is connected to the external storage device (for example, using a USB cable or over a network). Click the Finder icon in the Dock to open a Finder window, then do one of the following to move your files. Try removing all external USB devices from your MacBook Air. Everything other than the HP optical drive. Doom mac download. Hubs, disks, everything else. Connect the HP optical device, and see if it is now recognized. Reboot your MacBook Air. See if the device is now recognized. Swap the USB cable you're using for one that is known to work.
Before formatting DVD-RW, you need to know what DVD-RW is and what you need to format DVD-RW. So let's first take a look at the DVD-RW, then we have detailed solution to show you how to format a DVD-RW on Mac.
As introduced above, a DVD-RW is a disc that can be erased in order to rewrite. To record data onto a DVD-RW disc, you'll need a DVD burner that supports the DVD-RW format. Once a DVD-RW is formatted, you can use it again just like a new disc. Keep in mind that rewritable discs have a limited life. It is probably not a good idea to use them for long term file archiving, and you should never erase and reuse them more than about 100 times.
But before writing data onto a new, blank disc, you must first format it. Mac allows you to do this without the need to install a third-party utility. Every Mac made today can burn DVD-RW discs, and if your Mac has a SuperDrive, you can burn DVD-RW discs, too. The problem with reusing a rewritable DVD is that Apple didn't exactly make it easy to figure out.
Part 1: How to format DVD-RW on a Mac
If you want to know exactly how to format a DVD-RW on Mac so that you can reuse it for other data, here is what to do:
Step 1. Place the DVD-RW you want to format into your Mac. If there are any files you want to keep that are on the disc, be sure to copy them to your hard drive.
Step 2. Launch Disk Utility. It is in Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
Step 3. Select the DVD you want to format in the column on the left.
Step 4. Click the Erase tab. The Quick Erase box is checked by default. Using Quick Erase to prepare the disc for reuse takes less time.
Step 5. Click the Erase button to format the DVD-RW. Once this process finalizes you will have a clean DVD-RW ready to write on.
Part 3: How to rewrite DVD-RW on a Mac (Leawo DVD Creator for Mac)
After formatting the DVD-RW, then you will have the need to burn the new files into the DVD disc again. Concerning the DVD burning process, you have to use a third-party burning program. Leawo DVD Creator for Mac is highly recommended as your firm choice due to its powerful features in burning DVD and customized disc menu.
DVD Creator
☉ Convert videos like MP4, AVI, MKV to DVD format fast.
☉ Create DVD-5, DVD-9 disc, folder or ISO image without quality loss.
☉ 1-click operation to create photo slideshows and burn to DVD.
☉ Easily editable effects, 2D to 3D conversion support.
How To Use External Cd Drive On Macbook Pro
☉ Built-in menu templates and edit disc menu with personal preferences.
Step 1. Load video files
You can either add single video file or a video folder to this Mac DVD Creator. You can also drag the video file you need to add video files. After loading videos, at the bottom, select to burn video to DVD-5 or DVD-9 and choose a suitable aspect ratio 4:3 or 16:9. Also, you can choose the burning speed (fit to disc/2/3/5/7/9 Mbps). Space needed for DVD burning can be accessed here.
Step 2. DVD Creator Mac program settings
In the menu bar, navigate to the 'Preferences' option to do program settings upon burning:
'General': Select a program language from preset UI languages.
'Conversion': Enable Priority native codec or not.
'Burn': Choose default DVD video mode from NTSC and PAL, according to the place you locate.
'Others': Add external subtitle, choose encoding, choose thumbnail (screenshot) location and format.
Step 3 Video to DVD burning settings
Click the big green 'Burn' button to call out the burning setting sidebar, where you could set Burn to, Disc Label and Save to options. The 'Burn to' option allows multiple choices. To burn video to DVD disc on Mac, you need to insert a blank writable DVD disc into the disc recorder drive, and then select it as target under the 'Burn to' option.
Step. 4 Burn video to DVD
After you inserted a blank DVD disc to your DVD drive, chose path to save to, and typed the disc labeled, start to burn video to DVD on Mac by clicking on the 'Burn' button. Then it will start video to DVD creation.
Leawo DVD Creator can burn DVD from more than 180+ formats of videos and photos with 6X faster speed. Additionally, it can allow you to experience all kinds of DVD menu templates for free and you can edit your video according to your own preference. Besides, you can freely choose subtitles and audio tracks as well as preview changes in the video instantly and screenshot taking.
Conclusion
All the solution above are good ways to help you figure out the problem that how to format a DVD-RW on Mac. Remember that you have to make sure your DVD disc is the type that can be rewritten and read. You can erase the DVD disc freely and you can also rewrite the new files into the DVD disc again with the help of powerful Leawo DVD Creator.
Compared to many How-To articles, this one is pretty simple, but it saved me from buying another USB DVD drive just for one little task.
The problem: I have both Macs and Windows PCs, and needed to install Microsoft Office from DVD media on an ultrabook laptop that had no internal optical drive.
1 Steps total
Step 1: Download BootCamp from the Apple Support Site
The MacBook Air SuperDrive has unique firmware which prevents it from being properly recognized as a plug and play optical USB drive by Windows. Fortunately, Apple provides the drivers for running Windows on a Mac, as part of its BootCamp software.
If you download the latest release of BootCamp from Apple's support site, you will have a zip file wherein the path bootcampdriversApple contains the file 'AppleODDInstaller64.exe'.
Mac Compatible External Cd Drive
How To Use External Dvd Drive On Mac
Simply execute this file to install the Apple Optical Disk Driver for 64 bit Windows, and presto! You can then use the MacBook Air SuperDrive with your Windows PC.
15 Comments
External Dvd Rom For Mac
- TabascoFelloWizard Aug 14, 2015 at 03:03pm
Finally, something I can use. Thanks this is helpful on many levels.
- CayenneJeremyGove Aug 14, 2015 at 05:50pm
Long live BootCamp! Great post! Thanks for putting this up.
- CayenneInevitableCheese Aug 14, 2015 at 05:53pm
Makes you wonder why in the world they wouldn't just make it available.
- MaceCurtis3363 Aug 14, 2015 at 06:16pm
Awesome, I just got this drive for a friend and it won't work on his older Mac, so I'll give him mine and use his.
- SerranoNHCSAdmin Aug 14, 2015 at 06:20pm
Awesome! Been to busy to figure out how to use it on another computer! Thanks for the write up!
- Thai PepperBlair Groves Aug 14, 2015 at 06:23pm
Thank you for your comments everyone! I'm glad this was helpful to you!
- ChipotleColdDeck Aug 14, 2015 at 08:19pm
That's a useful bit of info right there. Thanks for posting!
- Datillhatsynot Aug 14, 2015 at 09:10pm
Very nice and I didn't know it wouldn't work. My wife has a Mac with one of these drives and I have an Ultrabook so this will come in handy.
- ChipotleJames1765 Aug 14, 2015 at 10:55pm
I should be shocked that Apple would break a long standing standard like this without any apparent advantage, but this is Apple we're talking about.
- Thai PepperBlair Groves Aug 14, 2015 at 11:23pm
For every one item that Apple has put up a dead end, they've both innovated and perfected dozens of things that have influences our world in general. They've succeeded in creating a very nice ecosystem for people who are prepared to pay the price of admission, and there is much more to come, as long as Apple remains attentive.
- CayenneBryan9095 Aug 15, 2015 at 12:05am
This is a much easier method. Connect the SuperDrive and a USB flash drive to a Mac. Copy the contents of the Office DVD to the flash drive. Then plug the flash drive into the ultrabook. Run the setup. The benefit of this method is not having to do anything special to get the SuperDrive to work with the ultrabook and the installation of Office will be faster.
- Thai PepperSteve_Belmont Aug 15, 2015 at 02:58am
Good Thinking! great job, and you get to save a few
- Macebbigford Aug 15, 2015 at 04:45am
Nice write up on repurposing. I'm guessing nobody would actually buy an Apple optical drive for Windows intentionally. At least it isn't a total loss if you're stuck with it and don't want to pay $30 for a new external.
- DatilAshleyLewisMS Aug 16, 2015 at 02:30pm
Thanks for the guide. I gotta say, I've used a generic Samsung external DVD drive on an iMAC before and it works a treat.
- DatilRusty Platter Aug 17, 2015 at 10:19am
For the reverse situation, I've used a Dell USB DVD drive without issues on a Mac.
