How to format a DVD with UDF

This document assumes you already have UDF support, either built into the kernel or as a module.

To format a DVD at /dev/dvd with the UDF filesystem, use the mkudffs command:

mkudffs /dev/dvd

If that fails with a 'trying to change type of multiple extents' error, then it's likely that you've got a virgin disk. If you have the dvd+rw-tools package, you can re-format it with the following command:

dvd+rw-format /dev/dvd

Then run the mkudffs command again.

Example

# mkudffs --media-type=dvd /dev/dvd
trying to change type of multiple extents
# dvd+rw-format /dev/dvd
* DVD±RW/-RAM format utility by , version 6.1.
* 4.7GB DVD+RW media detected.
* formatting 9.5\
# mkudffs /dev/dvd
start=0, blocks=16, type=RESERVED 
start=16, blocks=3, type=VRS 
start=19, blocks=237, type=USPACE 
start=256, blocks=1, type=ANCHOR 
start=257, blocks=16, type=PVDS 
start=273, blocks=1, type=LVID 
start=274, blocks=2294573, type=PSPACE 
start=2294847, blocks=1, type=ANCHOR 
start=2294848, blocks=239, type=USPACE 
start=2295087, blocks=16, type=RVDS 
start=2295103, blocks=1, type=ANCHOR 

Information about your DVD

To find out information about how dvd+rw-tools sees your dvd (at /dev/dvd), run the following command:

dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/dvd

Reference

Last modified: 12/08/2007 Tags: (none)

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