The only thing that appears to have changed is the new laptop. The external Sony drive gets instructions from the laptop sources. Your old laptop would tell it to automatically format DVD+RW discs; your new laptop waits until it gets instructions from you. (Vista and Windows 7 operating systems typically do this. Did your operating system change, too, with the new laptop? Have you updated img?)
It does not appear to me to be anything wrong either with the discs or the Sony drive. All the changes were with other parts of the recording chain.
the old laptop was automatic and then a few days later had this problem before it crashed...i now have windows7 with the new one...what kind of instruction could i send the sony?...windows7 says i have the current driver for sony...
i am going to play around to see if i can figure it out, in the meantime keep those suggestions coming...thanks again joe...
I am not familiar with the combination of img software and the Windows 7 operating system. Win 7 may insist on your formatting the rewritable disc as soon as it's inserted into the drive. On the other hand, the recording software may format it with the DVD-video format during the recording session just as software formats DVD-/+R discs during their recording sessions. (Yes, those discs are formatted, too. "Formatting" applies to more than packet-writing formats put on rewritable media.)
It may also be that Win 7 now requires an extra step on your part, but the fault does not lie either with your discs or with your external drive.
