Open Software Solutions

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.

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This issue occurs because the Windows Vista Live File System reserves a small amount of disc space to accommodate link-loss area. Live File System uses Restricted Overwrite mode. In this mode, the media requires a special low-level format. This format reserves a small amount of disc space for link-loss area. The Universal Disk Format (UDF) file system reserves at least 10 percent of the reported capacity of the disc for sparing.Also, if the disc was originally formatted by a third-party program, additional space may be reserved by the third-party program.

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For more information about the Live File System disc format, visit the following Microsoft Web page:

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