Uninitialised disc in external drive

My external drive when loaded with a new DVD-R shows "uninitialised."

I have followed all of the suggestions in the apple preferences, disk utility preferences, everything that I can find...

But nothing changes. The external drive shows in the 'disc burning' section of the apple but not in 'storage.' I have followed suggestions in "CD and DVD preferences."

Disk utility opens when I insert the new disc but everything is gray and all I can do it eject.