Can't make a bootable DVD

I recently downloaded Lion on to my 2006 model MacBook. Before installing it I wanted to make a bootable DVD in order to install Lion on my iMac. I inserted a blank DVD-R 8x into the MB which promptly rejected it. I tried several times with the same result. The MB will play recerded DVDs perfectly well. The same blank DVD was accepted by the iMac. What can be the problem and how can I fix it? Can anyone help me?

It sounds like a bad optical drive. You can try cleaning it with a can of compressed air by blowing a couple of short blasts into the drive. If you're lucky, it'll work and you can use the drive to burn the disk. If not, you may have to replace the drive.

Why not download Lion on to your iMac and burn the bootable DVD there instead. Or just copy the download to the iMac.

Do you mean an 8GB Dual Layer DVD? If so you need a DL burner. Go into Apple System Profiler (About this Mac) Disc Burning and see if something like this is recorded:



Firmware Revision: AC08
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2000 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh


The DL indicates Dual Layer burning capacity.