Can't burn 4.43 GB of data onto 4.7 GB DVD

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Level 1

8 points

Can't burn 4.43 GB of data onto 4.7 GB DVD

I'm trying to burn a folder of .avi files onto a standard-issue 4.7 GB Memorex DVD+R . The total size of the folder is 4.43 GB. I've had no trouble burning smaller folders using the standard burn command on my iMac's combo drive. In the past, when I had wanted to put, say, 690 mbs on a cd that held 700 mb, I used Terminal and the instructions published by MacWorld ( http://www.macworld.com/article/42475-2/2005/01/febmacosxhints.html)to create an ISO images and had no trouble burning them to CD. (That was on my iBook G4, using OS 10.3.9.)

But now, when I follow those same instructions to create an .iso, I get an error message in Terminal: "hdiutil: makehybrid failed - Operation not permitted". I tried using Disk Utility to create a disc image for my folder, but all I could get was a .dmg image, and when I try to burn it, I get the same "not enough room on the DVD" message. (Besides, is .dmg compatible with PC operating systems?) I thought it could be a single corrupt disk, but I've inserted several blank DVDs and get the same reply.

Does anybody have any suggestions? I'd rather not buy Toast or another second-party software package.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jan 8, 2009 8:35 PM

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Answer 1

Duo

Level 2

475 points

Jan 8, 2009 8:48 PM in response to MSM

Unfortunately, marketing magic is at work with DVDs. The tactic is most widely recognized with hard drives in which a hard drive will be advertised as 250GB with the disclaimer that 1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. To a computer though, 1GB = 1073741824 bytes, so a 250GB hard drive is actually only going to give you 232GB. Devious.

It's the same game with DVDs unfortunately. That 4.7GB DVD is actually only 4.3GB.

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Answer 2

MSM Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 8, 2009 9:00 PM in response to Duo

Is that unique to DVDs? I used to use the ISO trick to fill up CDs without any problem, and sometimes was even able to put, say, 703 MBs on a 700 MB disk when I burned things to CD, and that was using a number of different brands.

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Answer 3

Jan 8, 2009 9:26 PM in response to MSM

The most I've ever gotten on a single layer DVD was about 4.4 GB.

Message was edited by: Warheart1188

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Answer 4

MSM Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 8, 2009 10:15 PM in response to MSM

Not being overly familiar with images, I though part of my problem was that the .dmg I created kept the same Mac coding that keeps you from filling up a disk that's always been there, so I thought making an .iso and burning it using Terminal instead of the standard Mac Burn program would solve that. Figuring out how to make an .iso was my original frustration. But I was able to dig this up.

From Macworld, again, only this one is much more recent:

+Create a folder of the stuff you want to put in the image. Launch Disk Utility and choose File -> New -> Disk Image From Folder. In the Select Folder to Image dialog box that appears, select your folder and click Image. In the resulting New Image From Folder dialog box choose DVD/CD Master and None from the Encryption pop-up menu. Save the image to the Desktop.+

+Open Terminal and type:+

+cd ~/Desktop+
+hdiutil makehybrid -iso -joliet -o Test.iso Test.cdr+

+(Change the name of Test.iso and Test.cdr to reflect the actual name of your image.)+

+Terminal will do its stuff and you'll be presented with a spanking new ISO file from your image.+

However, when I tried using Terminal to burn it, I got the same "not enough room" message, so I guess it really IS the disks and not the image. But at least now I won't keep running up against the "makehybrid fail" error message the next time I need to make an image for my PC-using friends.

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