Back in the days when blank CD-R and DVD-R disks were a little costlier than they should have been, I used the re-usable CD-RW disks to write and re-write the data many-many times. The re-writable CD-RW and DVD-RW disks can be erased and used once again just like a regular USB disk. In the past, I have used such disks to create system repair disks, bootable antivirus rescue disks, Linux installation disks and so on. Although the rewritable optical disks are not as popular as they once were, Windows 10 still supports erasing and reusing such disks. Here is how you can erase a CR-RW/DVD-RW disk in Windows 10 and re-use it once again:
- Insert the CD-RW or DVD-RW disk in the optical drive of your Windows 10 PC and wait for it to be recognized.
- Open Windows File Explorer from its taskbar shortcut, select This PC from the left-side and then select the CD/DVD drive icon.
- Expand the ribbon-bar, switch to the Manage tab and then click on the Erase this disc icon.
- Click Next to start the disk erase wizard. Only the re-writable disks can be erased, otherwise the wizard will fail.
- As the disk erase wizard starts to delete the files and their file records, you will be shown a progress bar. This will take a few minutes. In the end, you will be shown a confirmation and you will have a blank disk – ready to be used once again.
Windows 10 provides full support for all kinds of hardware. It includes in-built support for erasing re-writable optical disks (CD-RW or DVD-RW) although your optical drive should also support writing to these disks as well.