I've had problems like that with CD-RWs. I generally try to stay away from RWs as I've never had a good experience with them. In your case, it could be many things. Perhaps your particular burner works differently than most, or maybe the discs are bad. You shouldn't have to preformat like that. Test the discs on a friend's burner, if possible. If they work, then the burner probably doesn't work right. If they don't, the discs are probably bad. Something else to consider is what program you are using to burn. That might be screwing things up, too.