When I try to formatting a Disc, and I have tried

1. If your Sony DVD recorder player RDR-GX257's disc recorder has stopped working, don't despair! There are a few things you can try to get it up and running again.

2. First, check to see if the disc recorder is properly connected to your TV and to an electrical outlet. If everything is plugged in correctly, try pressing the "Reset" button on the back of the DVD recorder.

3. If the reset doesn't work, try unplugging the DVD recorder from the power outlet for a few minutes, then plug it back in. This sometimes clears any glitches that may be causing the problem.

4. If the DVD recorder still isn't working, it's possible that the disc itself is the problem. Try inserting a different disc into the player and see if it will play. If it does, the first disc was probably the issue. If the second disc doesn't play either, then the problem is most likely with the DVD recorder itself.

5. If you've tried all of the above and the DVD recorder still isn't working, you may need to take it to a repair shop or contact Sony customer service for further assistance.

this happens alot with the Sony handycams ... try reading the disc in another DVD then see if you can rescue the recording ... There donst seem to be any other route you can take to correct this ...

ok there are a few ways you can do this one way is if you have a windows 98 disk run it from start up it will format it for you or you can buy a set of cables that will let you hook it up as a usb drive hook it up to another computer an format the drive put it back in to laptop an try install again or get a copy of a full version of windows that you had on pc an reinstall it then do your recovery disk or just get a copy of the recover disk for that pc from acer.

usually this happens when lens cannot read the the disc. Due to few reason 1 Your disk is scratched 2 Your DVD lens is covered with dust 3 You need to replace DVD lens
Try another few CD/DVD to rectify whether there is any problem with dvd you are trying to play
if this error occurs on all the dvd you played then the most likely proble is with your DVD lens either its coverd with dust use Disk cleaner if not you got to replace a new DVD lense as per model

What you have is a disc finalising error; it was a known issue with one of the chipsets fitted to the DVR1600 when using some brands of DVD+R. CyberHome eventually released a firmware update which addressed the issue along with a few other problems.

Unfortunately, CyberHome appear to no longer exist: their website certainly does not so the firmware update you'd need will not be easy to find.

You have three options available:-

1. Post an appeal on a suitable forum such as http://www.videohelp.com/ Some of their members certainly downloaded the firmware back in 2005 and you may be lucky enough to find someone who still has it lurking in the dusty corners of their pc hard drive.

2. Try using DVD-R instead from a well known major brand. Your machine is compatible with these and it's certainly worth trying as that's the most widely compatible format for all DVD movie recorders. Machines like yours use older technology and so it was primarily designed to use -R. Compatibility with +R was a later
"bolt-on" to the original package. I would also have advised that you try different brands of +R but as you state "I have tried a few" it seems as if you've done this already.

3. Retire the machine to use for playback only and buy a new recorder. There have been considerable improvements in the technology of both recordable discs and the hardware over the last five years and you'll find that a new drive will be faster and more reliable than your CyberHome model was. Your current unit was a budget model built down to a price so when it was made around five years ago it was excellent value as it used older technology and it's done very well to last this long.

I hope that you have found my posting to be of use and ask only that you return the favour by rating my answer.

use dvd-r or cd-r more universal usually dont have to format disc

Hi matthewbugbe,

I think what that means is it does not recognize your hard drive. If you are trying to install Windows 98 you should format your drive first.

try formatting the disc. it will erase everything on the disc and you can start fresh. try this with all the discs.if the problem keeps happening, try new discs.
wg

thats cause you are running the wing 98 of the same hard drive that you are trying to format. What you need to do is create a boot disc. boot from that disc and then format.

you can also boot from a win 98 cd to format as well.. If you have problems doing that let me know and i can walk you through it :)

best solution is to return it. they are junk