I too experienced the problem referred to in Nero's online FAQ where format of a
CDRW fails at the end. I tried unsuccessfully most of the strategems in this thread
(each time waiting 20 or so minutes for the format to fail).
I switched to Veritas DLA (drive letter access) and was able to format & use a CDRW
within a couple of minutes.
http://h20015.www2.hp.com/hub_search/document.jhtml?lc=en&docName=bph07940