Non-Standard Disc Burning With Super Drive

Question

So I read this article: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58641
Then I got one of those 80mm to 120mm CD adapters and loaded my 80mm disc into the drive. No problems what-so-ever inserting or ejecting.
So here's the problem: It won't burn. After spinning it around for a bit, it spits it out. Every application from Toast to iDVD to iTunes.
Is this a limitation of the drive? Will it NOT even try to write a disc smaller than 120mm? Nor will it play the discs. DVD-R nor CD-R.
Is there a way to tell it to write a smaller disc? My old tray burner will read and write 80mm discs either in the adapter or not. So it seems to be strictly a hardware issue, which is too bad as the Superdrive blows my external out of the water ...

Answer 1

Wow! You guys are something. 80mm to 120mm adapters are common. They are not hard on the drives at all! What could be hard on them!? It's a piece a plastic that clips onto the 80mm drive and turns it into a standard 120mm disc. AND nobody said Apple was the only slot loader that didn't accept 80mm discs.
Also, there would be no change to the hardware at ALL! The laser presently reads from the inside out. Clip on an adapter so the hardware draws the 80mm disk in just like a 120mm disk. The hardware spins the disc from the center hole just like a 120mm disc. The laser reads the disk starting from the center just like a 120mm disc. What's happening is the drive's firmware, or OS X's drive software must be telling it to ignore the smaller disc capacities of 80mm discs. Otherwise the 80mm disc in its 120mm adapter spins quietly in my drive no differently than a normal 120mm disc. It is not hard on the equipment. However, after the drive reads it, it spits it out, no differently than inserting a pre-recorded disc when trying to burn a blank one.
My guess is that if the drive readily recognized 80mm discs and someone succeeded at burning and/or playing them, people might be tempted to do it all the time and eventually lead to stuck discs and warranty claims no matter how careful they were.
So I'm back to this being a software issue, which should be able to be patched. I'm happy to entertain other theories, if they are more than statements of fact without any supporting arguments.