1DVD+RW-FORMAT(1)            General Commands Manual           DVD+RW-FORMAT(1)
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NAME

6       dvd+rw-format - formatting and blanking DVD and BD media program.
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SYNOPSIS

9       dvd+rw-format         [-force[=full]]         [-lead-out|-blank[=full]]
10       [-ssa[=none|default|max|XXXm]] /dev/dvd
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DESCRIPTION

14       dvd+rw-format is a part of dvd+rw-tools suite and allows to format vir‐
15       gin  DVD+RW  or  BD-RE media for the first use or blank already written
16       DVD-RW.  Typical use cases of using dvd+rw-format is formatting  DVD-RW
17       to  make  them over-writable, blanking used DVD-RW to make them sequen‐
18       tially writable from scratch, formatting BD-RE and DVD-RAM with  custom
19       spare  area  sizes  or  re-formatting BD-RE and DVD-RAM to change their
20       spare size.  It is not possible to format CD-RW by  dvd+rw-format,  you
21       can  use  cdrskin, xorriso or wodim utilities to blank them or cdrwtool
22       to format them instead, see section EXAMPLES.
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24       A DVD-RW accepts two disc  modes:  the  Sequential  Recording  and  the
25       Restricted  Overwrite. If a DVD-RW medium is in the latter one, it will
26       behave much like DVD+RW.  By default DVD-RW  discs  are  in  Sequential
27       Recording  mode,  but  can  be put into Restricted Overwrite mode using
28       dvd+rw-format when no options given.  Be aware, that only  -blank=full,
29       which  lasts  as  long  as full writing, makes a used sequential DVD-RW
30       capable of performing multi-session, while fast blanked DVD-RW can only
31       do Disk-At-Once.
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33       Virgin  DVD-RW can be directly written without the need of a formatting
34       operation, however a non-virgin DVD-RW  in  Sequential  Recording  mode
35       needs  to  be  blanked  before  writing  a new initial session. Since a
36       DVD-RW medium in  the  Restricted  Overwrite  mode  behaves  much  like
37       DVD+RW, it  can be written again without prior formatting the media.
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39       Virgin  BD-RE  and DVD+RW media may be initially formatted prior usage.
40       Any-time later, growisofs program will take care of formatting it auto‐
41       matically  whenever appropriate, while further formatting is not recom‐
42       mended, however it is possible.
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OPTIONS

46       -force[=full]
47              Perform formatting even if the medium is formatted already. This
48              is  not  recommended for BD-RE and DVD+RW media, since they need
49              to be formatted only once.  Use  -format=full  to  perform  full
50              (lengthy) reformat in case of DVD-RAM or (lengthy) Full Certifi‐
51              cation in case of BD-RE.
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53       -lead-out
54              Relocates the lead-out next to outermost written sector as  well
55              as  makes  sure  there  is no virgin surface before it. This can
56              make the medium more compatible with some  DVD  players.  Previ‐
57              ously written data is not affected by this operation.
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59       -blank[=full]
60              Wipe  data  from  DVD-RW media. Data on BD-RE and DVD+RW will we
61              overwritten automatically, so there is no  need  to  blank  them
62              explicitly.  Use -blank=full to change DVD-RW back to Sequential
63              Recording mode.
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65       -ssa[=none|default|max|XXXm]
66              Grow, eliminate, reset  to  default  or  maximize  Supplementary
67              Spare Area.
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EXAMPLES

71       Actual  device  names vary from one operating system to another. We use
72       /dev/dvd as a collective name or as symbolic link to the actual  device
73       if  you  wish.  Under  Linux  it  will  most likely be a device such as
74       "/dev/sr0" or "/dev/hda" for older Linux 2.6.
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76       To blank a CD-RW, you have to use another utility, e.g. wodim:
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78               wodim blank=fast -immed dev=/dev/cdrom
79               cdrskin blank=all|fast|as_needed -immed dev=/dev/cdrom
80               xorriso -outdev /dev/cdrom -blank all|fast|as_needed
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82       To format CD-RW, you can use cdrwtool:
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84               cdrwtool -d /dev/cdrom -q
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86       To blank a DVD-RW and put in the incremental sequential mode, run:
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88               dvd+rw-format -blank=full /dev/dvd
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90       To blank a DVD-RW and put in the Restricted Overwrite mode, run:
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92               dvd+rw-format -force /dev/dvd
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94       To overwrite data of BD-RE, DVD+RW, DVD-RW or DVD-RAM run:
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96               growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=/dev/zero
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98       To blank a DVD-RAM, you can use:
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100               dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/dvd
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102       To relocate lead-out sector, run:
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104               dvd+rw-format -lead-out /dev/dvd
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NOTES

108       Note that DVD+RW re-formatting procedure does not substitute for blank‐
109       ing.  If you want to nullify the media, e.g. for privacy reasons, do it
110       explicitly with 'growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=/dev/zero'.
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112       When growisofs "runs into" blank Blu-ray Disc media or BD-RE,  it  gets
113       pre-formatted with minimal spare area size of 256MB.
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SEE ALSO

117       Most   up-to-date   information   on   dvd+rw-tools   is  available  at
118       http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/.
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120       growisofs(1), cdrskin(1), xorriso(1), wodim(1), cdrwtool(1)
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AUTHORS

124       Andy Polyakov <appro@fy.chalmers.se> stands for programming and on-line
125       information.
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127       This  manpage  was  created by Honza Horak <hhorak@redhat.com> and con‐
128       sulted by Thomas Schmitt <scdbackup@gmx.net>.
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LICENSE

132       dvd+rw-format is distributed under GNU GPL.
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137dvd+rw-tools 7.1                  24 Aug 2012                 DVD+RW-FORMAT(1)