Burn an 8x DVD

Sounds like you're trying to burn a dual-layer DVD in a drive that only supports single-layer DVDs. Open System Profiler (found in /Applications/Utilities/), click on Disc Burning and look at the DVD-Write info. If it says +R DL in there somewhere, it should support the DVDs you're using... if not, it doesn't.

guynjoan wrote:
When I open up an 8.5 GB DVD+R DL with the finder it appears to be a 4.7 GB DVD. On the DVD itself it says it has a capacity of 8.5 GB, but the finder reads it to be 4.7 GB. When I put 7 GB worth of files on it it says that I am over the capacity and won't let me burn it.
I just got burning a few disk images in disk utility, so I know my computer can recognize 8.5 GB DVDs.

So you are saying it stopped recognizing DL DVDs all of a sudden?

I just set the Options so Finder opens a blank DVD and inserted a DL DVD. Finder shows it as 7.96GB free.
When you say you are using an 8x DVD, I am surprised. Most of my DL DVDs are 2.4x.
Are you sure your burner supports an 8x DL DVD?

Message was edited by: nerowolfe

guynjoan wrote:
as I said, I burnt 5 of them using disc utility just today, but what i have to burn isn't a disc image

Can't you can use DU to burn it? I never use Finder to burn anything. I use Toast.

Still, something is wrong with your Finder in not reading the correct size of the blank.

Message was edited by: nerowolfe

A long shot. Are you using the same media type. I've just had a look at my burn capabilities and noticed a subtle difference between the two drives. My second drives supports both DL types but my stock drive +Only supports +R DL+.

guynjoan wrote:
ok, so how do i burn a folder to a dvd in disc utility?

I use Toast, but I believe you simply use DU to create a new image, put the files in the image and then burn the image.

Message was edited by: nerowolfe

guynjoan wrote:
Hmm, is there anyway to format it to NTFS? I want this to be read by Vista, and I don't think it can read MS-DOS (FAT), I know XP can

Vista can read and write FAT32 no problem. It's only the other way around that does not work. I have used a FAT32 flashdrive to transfer data from Leopard to Vista 64-bit (NTFS) on this MBP with no problems.

Rather than make a coaster, try a smaller size file on a DVD R/W and see if it works. I use the R/Ws for this purpose all the time.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Message was edited by: nerowolfe

You mean the burn itself failed? You can't read the DVD even on the Mac?
I long ago gave up with Leopard burning tools and switched to Toast. Never have had a failure.