When you format a disc by using the Live File System component on a Windows Vista-based computer, you may receive an error message that is similar to the following:

Windows was unable to complete the format

Consider the following scenario:

• You format an optical disc by using the Live File System component on a Windows Vista-based computer.
• You eject the disc soon after the formatting operation appears to be complete. Or, you eject the disc soon after you write a file to the disc, after the formatting operation is complete.
• You reinsert the disc.

In this scenario, the disc appears to be blank. Any files that were written to the disc after the formatting operation are lost. Additionally, you cannot write any files to the disc. This problem occurs only when you use the Live File System component to format the disk, and then you eject the disk soon after a write operation has occurred.

After you format a disc by using the Windows Vista Live File System, the available space on the disc is less than the capacity of the disc. For example, after you format a 700 megabyte (MB)-disc, less than 700 MB is available for use on the disc.