unable to use Disc Utility to erase CD-RWs

[pilkmeister]

Aloha-
I've been trying w/no success to clear/erase CD-RWs using Apple's
Disc Utility (OS 10.3.3). The discs indeed appear in the Disk Utility tree as
CD-RWs but then under the write status as "read only".
I've tried to erase several different discs but either don't even get the "Erase" button activated or get the following error when I start the erase process:
"Optical Erase failed
Optical Erase Failed with the error:
Whole disk required, slice passed"
Any suggestions? I would rather not buy specific 3rd-party software to
erase CDs/DVDs but if I must what software do you recommend?

Thanks!

[klojewski]

In the Disk Utility, on the left side, select the icon for the DVD drive, not the disk.

In Disk Utility, two DVD icons appear. The top one has the name of the drive manufacturer (Pioneer in my case), and the other icon has the name of the DVD that you want to erase. If you select the second icon, you get the error, or no option to erase. If you select the first icon, all should be well.

[jimsowden]

RW is so lame. just either get a spindle or an HD.