My laptop says it cannot format my DV+R, Why?

It is a Gateway
Running Vista

A couple of questions might help in resolving the issue:

What software are you using to burn?
Is the disk definitely blank?
Maybe you’re drive will only write to DVD-R? Check that.

software came with the laptop. Microsoft – backup and restore center.

The disk came right out of the package.

How can I find out if my laptop can write to a DVD+R?

Sometimes disks are just wonky. I would try restarting your computer and trying a different. disk.

I had new disks at my house…they didn’t work. I thought, “maybe they were wonky so I went out and bought a new pack…Arg!

Try to turn a word or audio file with this.

http://infrarecorder.org/

We need to determine if the drive works.

@valdasta Usually the front of the DVD tray will have a little icon (or a couple) that shows which formats it can write to (the +/- tends to be pretty small though).

If you know the model of your laptop you could probably find out on the support website.

@sebastian_von_tulu Stupid, me! I see the icon. It does have the “DVD+R” there.

Hmm, have you tried as @johnpowell suggested?

@sebastian_von_tulu yes, but I couldn’t download the software the first time…will try again, now. Maybe my laptop is freakn’ out.

Oh no! I hope not.

I am still covered by my waranty.
I am bringing it to the “Geeks” to fix a lighted control panel problem…but I wanted to make sure it was all backed up before I brought it in.

Well, if the drive is faulty (mine won’t even read DVDs anymore) you could always buy a fairly cheap pen drive or external HDD for backing-up. They’re always handy to have anyway.