Programs for copying damaged DVD discs. Utilities for resuscitation of damaged laser discs
Data backup and recovery programs - 6
Copying damaged CDs and DVDs disks
CD and DVD disks are gradually becoming a thing of the past, and they are being replaced by other more convenient and capacious media, to which all the old stuff is carefully transferred. Unfortunately, when copying information, we quite often come across a damaged disk that has been lying in a far corner for a hundred years (well, if not in the sun), and nostalgic memories do not allow us to immediately throw it away. However, when I try to copy the disk, I get the following message: reading error... Now it becomes a matter of principle for us to restore ancient photographs or video recordings from this disk - and the search begins for the corresponding programs, of which there are a great many. The descriptions, as usual, praise them and guarantee the restoration of disks that were almost split and then glued together by “Moment.”
Of the wide variety of programs for copying damaged disks, I liked a small free utility File Salvage(File Savior) by Softella. It does not require installation, has a minimum of settings and a simple interface. Size 210 kb. You can download the ZIP archive from the corresponding page of the developer’s website or.
Without further ado, I’ll quote the abstract from the developer’s website:
"Program File Salvage will allow you to save a movie or a desired file from a scratched or hard-to-read disc. A unique feature - you can save a file using multiple drives. Several algorithms are automatically applied to recover files, and progress is continuously displayed as a percentage."
After downloading, unpack the archive. It is advisable to create a separate folder for it, since the recovered file is automatically saved on your hard drive in the same folder where the program is located. Launch the program File Salvage and we see the original interface in the form of a lifebuoy - Fig. 1
Fig.1. Program for copying damaged disks File Salvage
For incurious people in a hurry, everything is simple: select a file on a CD or DVD disk ( Source File) and press the button Start. You watch the progress of the process, which is displayed on the chart as a percentage, and at the end of it, you admire the recovered file on your hard drive. I remind you that it is saved in the same folder where you unpacked the program File Salvage.
And our inquisitive friends, of course, will press the button with their playful fingers Advanced... A more interesting window will appear - Fig. 2:
Fig.2."Fine" settings for file recovery
Here you can experiment with different settings and modes for copying damaged records, but I want to warn you that there will still be no miracles. Even if you manage to stuff old vinyl into the drive, you won't get rid of the sand on the record. In addition to the described utility for copying damaged disks, Softella also offers other small but interesting programs, for example, Light Alloy- universal MP3, AVI, DVD, etc. player, as well as Gamux- classical chess and Russian checkers (8x8 with queens). You can view and download them on the company’s website. 04/25/2012
- More articles on the topic "Computer optimization and acceleration":
In this article, I briefly described steps that can help recover data in the most common cases of loss on CD and DVD drives.
So, let's assume - you recorded photos from your summer holiday in the Maldives on a DVD, put it on a shelf and after half a year/year you decided to refresh your memory of this wonderful event by reviewing the pictures with your friends. You insert the disc into the DVD-ROM, the light blinks, the disc gains and loses speed, but you can’t open its contents in Explorer. Or the content is visible, but the necessary files cannot be copied.
What could lead to such a situation, and what courses of action are possible?
Option zero, the carrier has nothing to do with it
The issue could be the drive itself, the operating system, or viruses. DVD drives differ in the quality of their optics and the capabilities of their correction algorithms. In addition, dust and dirt may have settled on the lens, which prevents the disc from being read. Different drives may differ in the range of supported rotation speeds, and the lower the rotation speed the drive is capable of creating when trying to read the TOC of the disc (the table of contents of the disk recorded in the Lead-in area), the root directory and the data area, the higher the likelihood of successful correction of media reading errors .
Therefore, the first thing you need to try to do with an unreadable or hard-to-read CD or DVD disc is to try to read it on another accessible computer or laptop. For the purity of the experiment, it’s better not to use just one. There is a non-zero chance that a disk that refused to be read on your computer will be recognized and read on another.
You can also try special utilities that take on the function of determining the rotational speed of the blank in the drive. It happens that the standard firmware does not cope with this quite correctly and manual speed control can improve unstable or poor disk reading. Moreover, the lowest rotation speed will not always be the best for reading - here you need to experiment with the values. In each specific case, the approach to choosing the optimal reading speed may vary. The most common and easy-to-use utility for this purpose is CDSlow.
CDSlow program window
Option one, also the most common, surface contamination
Dirt, dust and fingerprints on the surface of the disc are easy to deal with. Using a special damp cloth for cleaning office equipment, carefully remove dirt, paying attention not to scratch the coating. Then we carefully wipe the disk with a dry cloth and you can insert it into the drive and try to read it.
You should wipe from the center to the edge, never in a circular motion. If a grain of sand suddenly gets under the napkin and scratches the disc, a radial scratch will cause much less damage than a concentric one.
Do not use acetone, nail polish thinner, kerosene, gasoline or other petroleum-based solvents. If you need to use a solvent to remove dirt from a disc, it is better to use alcohol-based solvents.
Option two, scratches
This also includes various forms of thermal damage.
Two ways to classify scratches come to mind:
- According to the integrity of the reflective layer:
- The scratch did not affect the reflective coating, only the polycarbonate backing was damaged.
- The reflective coating is damaged.
- By width and location:
- Narrow scratches. Due to the redundancy of stored information and the use of various corrective algorithms by the drive, they are not very dangerous.
- Wide scratches. In addition to more damaged data, additional problems are added, for example, the drive in this place may “lose” a track and continue to read the adjacent one. Successful reading in such cases largely depends on the perfection of the drive.
- Concentric scratches are the worst type of damage. Not only do corrective algorithms no longer help in this case, because... the entire sector is damaged, along with redundant information, which also confuses the positioning system.
Particularly severe damage is clearly visible against the light of the CD, as in this photo:
Scratches on the polycarbonate coating interfere with the laser beam of the drive to read data from the working surface, due to the fact that they introduce distortions into focusing. As a result, the laser beam either hits the wrong place or, after reflection, does not return to the reading element of the head.
Such damage can be repaired by polishing.
There are different polishing methods. Starting from filling scratches with special pastes with a refractive index close to that of polycarbonate, and ending with removing or smoothing the damaged top layer by heating. The methods used in polishing lenses and other optics are quite applicable.
You can polish manually, or use homemade polishing devices made on the basis of an electric razor with a linear drive, or use specialized tools, which are offered in variety on e-bay.
Successfully performing the above steps, in addition to having specialized tools and materials, requires considerable experience. Therefore, if the information on the problematic media is important to you, I advise you to entrust this work to data recovery specialists.
Or use the tips below, limiting yourself to wiping the disc.
On the Internet you can find descriptions of various “shamanic” methods, such as boiling a blank, freezing it, heating it over a gas burner or an incandescent lamp. All methods are designed to melt the polycarbonate so that the scratches are smoothed out or eliminated. Since these techniques have a high risk of having a destructive, irreversible effect on the host, I do not recommend them.
So, if, after dealing with scratches using the methods available to you, the data is still not readable, go to
Option three, crack on the disk
To recover data from such damaged media, it is first necessary to take measures to prevent the crack from growing, which can lead to irreversible data loss and even rupture of the disk in the drive. At a minimum, you should reduce the disk rotation speed to the minimum.
Methods for preventing crack growth are similar to those used in auto glass repair. First, the crack needs to be “drilled out.” It is best to use a thin needle heated over a fire for this purpose. Using a magnifying glass, see the end of the crack and make a puncture in the plastic a fraction of a millimeter further. It is best to do this not on one side, piercing the disk all the way through, but on both sides, inserting the needle into the plastic about half the thickness of the disk.
After this, it is advisable to glue the crack along its maximum length. To do this, you can slightly spread the edges of the crack and carefully coat it with a thin layer of superglue, in a minimal amount, so that there is no excess on the surface. Then bring the edges together and press them together. Make sure that the surface of the seam is smooth, without protrusions that could damage the drive optics.
Further actions are similar to working with scratched discs - if it is not readable,
Option four, damage to the substrate due to the poor quality of the media chosen for storing information or non-compliance with the storage conditions of the DVD or CD disc
According to GOST R 7.0.2-2006 for the preservation of documents on compact discs, the discs must be stored each in a separate box at a temperature of 10-20 degrees Celsius, humidity 20-65% and in diffuse light without ultraviolet radiation. If you believe this regulatory document, then by adhering to the above rules, CDs will live happily ever after. However, the choice of a disc as a future carrier of your important data is no less important. Many reviews have been written on this topic. I just want to highlight the most important points.
High-quality discs must be varnished at the ends, unlike their low-quality counterparts. If the end of the CD is not varnished, over time moisture will get between the polycarbonate coating and the substrate, which will lead to oxidation of the layer carrying information, and the data in such damaged areas will be irretrievably lost.
The same effect can occur if the protective coating of the CD or DVD disc has been seriously damaged. Atmospheric moisture that gets onto the substrate will also corrode everything around the damage site.
Methods and approaches to data recovery in case of such damage are also not original, the same
Option five, recording failure or unsuccessful attempt to add to the RW disk
In this case, problems with reading user data are logical in nature. It is difficult to give general recommendations, because failures caused by errors in software or user actions lead to a wide variety of consequences. The most universal method is to deceive the drive microprocessor.
If the error is related to attempts to add a session to multi-session media or an error in recording the current session, then you can try to access previous sessions using a program that can list previous sessions and extract the contents of the selected disc session and burn it to an ISO image. This function is also available in the “folk” Nero Burning Rom and in many other DVD burning managers, for example in Roxio Easy CD DVD Creator.
Option six, the rewritable disc has been erased or overwritten
If a so-called quick erase was performed, an analogue of a quick format on a hard drive, when only the TOC - file system of the disk is deleted, then the data can be restored. Needed with
If a quick erase was applied to the disk, and then new information was written on top, then you can only restore what was not overwritten. We take a full dump of the entire available maximum capacity, then cut off the excess and perform a recovery using the specified file headers in the remaining part.
If a hard wipe has been applied to the disk, then data recovery is not possible. In this case, a high-power laser pulse passed over the entire surface of the disk and heated the amorphous substance (recording material) to a temperature below the melting temperature, but above the crystallization temperature. The change of amorphous and crystalline areas, which were recognized by the drive as logical 0 and 1, disappeared. The entire layer, after complete erasure, crystallizes and is ready for re-writing.
The last option, there is nothing written on the disk at all
Oddly enough, data recovery specialists encounter a similar situation quite regularly. For example, many users, especially inexperienced ones, use operating system tools (read Windows) to record information on DVDs or CDs not with specialized software. Select the necessary files and folders with the mouse, right-click the option to send to the drive, see a window in which the files “fly” to their destination and calm down. In fact, after such an operation, the files are copied not to disk, but to a special temporary folder, and after this operation you need to call an additional Windows wizard, which will carry out the last stage during which, in fact, writing to the media will occur.
These are, perhaps, all the most common options for data loss on CD and DVD drives that users encounter. In conclusion, I would like to once again advise the following - if the lost information is of high value, leave experiments until better times, entrust data recovery to professionals.
Application zero. Copying and reconstruction methods
The following options are possible:
- Damage allows the drive to read the TOC and the directory tree (the contents of the disk are visible), but the necessary folders and files cannot be read. To copy them, you can use programs that allow you to read the disk sector by sector, ignoring or intelligently processing read errors that are not corrected by the drive. The most useful programs are described in the corresponding applications.
- The disk is detected by the drive, but trying to view the content using the OS results in a freeze or an error message. I am not aware of any free software that can effectively recover data in such situations, so please refer to using
- The drive is not recognized by the drive. The drive tries to read the disk at different speeds, the activity indicator blinks, after a number of unsuccessful attempts to read the table of contents at different speeds, the spindle stops. It is necessary to first make a sector-by-sector copy on a drive specially prepared for this purpose. Then we analyze the resulting image
Application one. Hot swap
If the damage is such that the TOC cannot be read and the disk is not recognized by the drive, you need to resort to the “hot swap” procedure of the disk, the so-called “hot-swap” method. The thing is that the drive really only needs three main TOC fields: the address of the output area of the disk (analogous to MAX LBA on the HDD), the starting address of the first track (0 LBA) and the address of the next session of the disk (if a multi-session disk was recorded). The starting address for all disks is the same - 00:02:00 (which corresponds to a zero LBA address). Lead-Out depends on the disk size (typical CD approximately 700 Mb, typical DVD 4.4 Gb).
The trick is that you take a blank disk of the same type and size, CD or DVD, and write one file on it for the entire logical volume - either a movie, or an image file (unpacked), or some kind of archive. Next, the housing is prepared in a special way, disassembled, or the eject signal and drive are blocked.
For a hot swap operation of a CD, the drive must use the same type of donor disc as the unreadable one. Those. If you need to recover information from a DVD-RW disc, then to prepare a donor disc, whose TOC will be written into the drive’s RAM, you need to take a similar DVD-RW disc. If the disc is DVD+R, then the disc should not be a “minus track” or RW, but rather a “plus” one. The same applies to mini-disks; it is better not to use a full-size disk for hot-swap.
The front panel is removed from the drive selected for the hot-swap operation, and the screws holding the top cover are unscrewed. In general, all conditions are prepared for replacing a disk without extending the tray. You need to understand that if your drive is under warranty, then after this procedure the warranty conditions will be violated.
Compact hot-swappable drive
Hot swapping of a disk in a drive
In the picture, the top cover of the drive contains a plastic clamping ring with a magnet, which must secure the CD in the reader. Therefore, after replacing the media with the required one, the cover must be returned to its place.
We insert a new disk with the entire recorded file into the drive, wait until the disk is recognized and the TOC is read and placed in the cache, after which we either wait for the disk to stop due to a timeout, or we spin down programmatically and change the new disk to an unreadable one. Now you can run and subtract the entire available LBA volume into a dump. Then we parse the contents of the dump using the same programs. If there are a large number of errors, the process can take quite a long time.
Some specialists, to recover data from disks that have problems with TOC, use drives with modified firmware that allows you to bypass TOC initialization and gain direct access to the user area. In addition, proprietary software is used that allows you to change the reading direction (from the beginning of the disk, from the end, from any LBA) and intelligently handle read error situations (read repeats, skipping specified areas, etc.), which allows you to significantly improve results for recovering information from disks containing multiple read errors.
Appendix two. Commercial programs for data recovery from DVDs, CDs
How to use ISOBuster
– a popular and richly available utility for working with disk images and restoring information on CD/DVD media. The program allows you to view and extract files, tracks and sessions from CD-i, CD-Text, VCD, SVCD, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, DVD and DVCD discs.
ISOBuster supports ISO9660, Joliet, Romeo, Little Endian and Big Endian byte order, all types of UDF (UDF 2.01/UDF 1.02, UDF 1.5), Rock Ridge (Commodore), short and long file names. To recover data from damaged media, the program has a valuable option - the ability to re-read damaged sectors many times, which increases the chance of correctly subtracting a particular problem sector.
The start window consists of two panels - on the left is a window for selecting images, sessions, disks and folders, and on the right is Explorer. After launching the program, the tracks and sessions that the utility was able to identify will appear in the left panel, and the files and directories found as a result of a quick preliminary scan will appear in the right panel. If necessary, you can run an extended scan, the so-called. "Search for missing files and folders."
Data recovery can be performed for the entire disk as a whole, or for individual folders and files. To do this, you should select what needs to be read from the damaged media and use the “Extract” command.
If, during copying, a bad sector is encountered on the media, the user is presented with a window asking him to try to read this sector again or skip it. Repeated re-reading of the bad sector is sometimes successful and its contents are read successfully.
When scanning the contents of optical drives is started and completed, the program displays in a drop-down menu all available sessions that were recorded on the disc. If there was a failure in one of the last sessions, ISO Buster allows you to work with a separately selected session and extract its contents as a RAW data array (in the form of an image for subsequent parsing by headers), or work with the selected session in Explorer mode.
ISO Buster allows you to generate a variety of reports on the directory tree, including taking into account unreadable content (data containing unread sectors).
If you are working with a disk using the hot swap method, when the TOC in the drive memory does not correspond to the original one, you can set the range to be copied from the selected LBA to the selected one.
At the stage of reading data into an image file, you can specify the use of intelligent filtering if the type of data on the recovered media (Video CD, Audio CD) is known in advance. In this case, ISOBuster will filter out sectors that meet the selected criterion.
Further parsing of the image file and data recovery from it is carried out similarly to working with a regular damaged CD. To do this, you need to first open the image file File->open image file.
How to use WinHex
– a popular multifunctional program for working with various media. It can work with CDs both at the logical (in the OS sense) and physical (in the same sense) level.
WinHEX program window
With Winhex you can remove a sector-by-sector image from a damaged disk, save the resulting dump to a file, and then parse it into its components or use the data recovery function using file signatures. Unlike hard drives, CD and DVD media do not have fragmentation, which significantly complicates such recovery methods.
Through the menu item Tools->Open Disk, the user is taken to a window with options for selecting a physical or logical disk to work with. If the drive does not recognize the presence of a disk in the tray (before the operation), then when you try to access an item in the list of logical drives, an error message “the device is not ready” will be displayed.
and when you try to access a physical disk, the program will display an error message “no access to the device.”
After this is done correctly, access to the LBA of the disk becomes available and you can proceed to the sector-by-sector copy operation: Tools->Disk Tools->Clone Disk. Here are the options for cloning to a separate medium or to a file of the entire available surface or any area, selecting the starting sector for the source disk and for the destination disk (if copying is not performed to a file), choosing a filler pattern for unread sectors and the jump size when unread is detected sectors (if you want to speed up copying on a disk with numerous uncorrectable read errors).
In our case, we need to select copying to a file and specify the path where to save it. We set zero as the starting sector; specifying some other number only makes sense if we can guess the number of unreadable sectors at the beginning of the disk. Having put all the necessary marks, you can start copying. The program saves a report on unread sectors in a separate log file.
From the image obtained after reading, it is now necessary to restore the necessary data. To do this, you will have to use the so-called RAW Recovery function or recovery by file signatures. What does it mean? The vast majority of file types have unique character sequences, so-called. signatures that can be used to uniquely determine the file type. As a rule, it is convenient to take a few characters at the beginning of the file as a signature. By setting the required signature as a selection criterion, you can recover all files of one type or another from the resulting image.
File header using JPEG as an example
During the search process, the following algorithm is used: the software finds the selected file header and saves the entire data array until the next similar header found, considering that it is a single file, or from the found header, a data array of the volume specified in the settings is saved (you can specify “with a reserve”) .
Of course, in this case the file names and directory structure will not be preserved, but it is better to receive the data in this form than not to receive it at all. The main problem that may arise when restoring information using the RAW recovery method is fragmented data, when part of the file is located in one place and the other part(s) in another. But in the case of restoring files from an image read from a CD\DVD, this does not happen, since the data is written linearly.
Restoring files by header in WinHex is available from the Tools->Disk Tools->File recovery by type menu. First, open the resulting image File->Open, select “recovery by file type”. The program displays a window reminding you that the data needs to be saved not where everything is restored from, but in another place (if you are working with an image file, you don’t have to worry about this) and reminds you that this option will give good results for unfragmented data.
The signature recovery settings window prompts you to select the type of files that you plan to extract from the image, the maximum expected file size, the directory in which to save everything, and the search algorithm: Extensive byte-level search (the slowest and most advanced, I recommend using it), Search at sector boundaries (search from the sector boundaries) and Search at cluster boundaries, if possible (search from the cluster boundaries, if possible).
If files of rare types that are not described in the “Select file type(s)” directory were recorded on the disk, then by clicking on the Signatures button, you will launch a system spreadsheet editor (such as Microsoft Excel), in which you can add the desired header manually.
After all the manipulations done, all that remains is to click on the “Ok” button and wait for the result. All files that meet the specified conditions will be saved to the selected directory.
Appendix three. Free programs for data recovery from DVDs, CDs
- the most functional, from my point of view, of the free programs. It is positioned as software that can also work with flash drives and hard drives. During the installation process, it installs its own libraries into the system, which help the program to better handle emergency situations with problematic storage media. After installation, a system reboot is required.
The program window is divided into two parts: where to copy from (top) and where to copy (bottom). To start copying, you need to drag the files from above with the mouse or go to the folder that you want to copy completely and click “Copy”. The copying algorithm can be configured by selecting the “Settings” sub-item of the “View” main menu. I will not dwell on configuration issues in more detail, since the program contains quite detailed reference information.
Separately, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the utility has an EXTRA mode, which should start automatically when errors in reading CD or DVD discs are detected.
Recovery Toolbox for CD Free
Recovery Toolbox for CD Free– a utility from the well-known company Recovery Toolbox, which specializes in creating utilities for recovering data from damaged files of all types, from doc and xls to registry files and exotic databases. The only free program mentioned here that does not have a Russian interface. The copying algorithm is not configurable.
When you start the program, you are asked to select the drive from which the recovery will be made, as well as the path where you want to save the subtracted data. After reading the TOC, the utility prompts you to mark the desired directories and files, and the saving process begins. If unreadable sectors are encountered during the copying process, the user is prompted to reread or skip the sector (file). At the end of the process, you can save a report of the work completed.
DeadDiscDoctor
DeadDiscDoctor– has a minimalistic interface with beautiful pictures. Uses an original copying algorithm, the settings of which cannot be changed. We choose what to copy, choose where to copy, start the process.
Non-Stop Copy
Non-Stop Copy– the interface is similar to DeadDiscDoctor. The downside is that there is no way to select more than one file to copy at a time. There are minimal algorithm settings.
Reprinting or quoting is permitted provided that a direct link is maintained, data recovery from DVD CD to our website.
You will need
- -Computer;
- -disks;
- -several drives;
- -SuperCopy program;
- -BadCopy program;
- - Nero program;
- - Alcohol program;
- -cleaning wipes;
- -freezer.
Instructions
A disk is a fragile thing; it only needs a couple of scratches to become unreadable. First, make sure that your drive can actually read the detected disk. Optical storage media can be in the form of CD-ROM, CD-RW, CD-R, or DVD-ROM, DVD-RW. All these formats are different, the drive must match the storage medium. Test your existing drives on other hardware.
If the drive shows up but on the PC, try the following:
- use special programs. For example, SuperCopy, BadCopy. Please note that basically this software can only skip damaged areas. This helps if you are trying to recover a disk with movies or music; it won’t work with games.
-polish the disc with a silk or cotton cloth. Make sure that no new scratches appear. Make movements starting from the center, smoothly moving to the edges, but not along.
- wipe the disc with a special cloth. These antistatic wipes are sold in computer stores.
Place the disc in the freezer for about thirty minutes. Wrap it in a bag to prevent moisture from collecting. This is why it helps: a cooled disk takes longer to heat up, so the drive has time to read the information. The main thing is not to overexpose the disc in the freezer, the disc will become more fragile and may break.
Create a disk image using programs such as Alcohol or Nero, copy files from the image. The virtual system will force disks od treat information more carefully. Try it from the disc using Slow CD, Nero Drive Speed. Discs can be read at different speeds; these programs are used to determine the speed.
Wipe the disc with a soft cloth and detergent. This helps if the disc is very worn. Remember, do not wipe discs with acetone or gasoline. After such wet cleaning, the disc must dry completely.
Wipe the dry disc with a cloth soaked in vegetable oil. Oil does not conduct electricity, is not as liquid as water, and will also remain in the scratch. Even damaged data can be recovered.
Video on the topic
note
Try inserting the CD into another drive; it happens that one drive reads the information, but the other does not.
Helpful advice
Use a combination of all disk recovery methods.
Perhaps everyone who stores any information on disks, sooner or later they encounter a problem when the computer cannot open them due to numerous scratches and other damage. Often, such disks are immediately sent to the trash bin, but there is no need to rush, you can try to recover the lost information and rewrite it to another medium. Several simple ways will help you do this.
You will need
- - damaged disk;
- - cotton or silk fabric;
- - special antiseptic wipes;
- - soft cloth and detergent.
Instructions
The first step is to check whether your drive can even open and read the detected disk. If not, then don’t panic right away; check this disk on another computer. Next, check the media for damage such as scratches. If you find cracks, chips or other serious damage on the disk, do not try to open it on the computer. Otherwise, due to the speed of unwinding, it may simply crack in the drive, and you will have another problem in the form of fragments that will then need to be removed from the drive.
If the computer detects the disk but does not open it, try using special programs such as BadCopy or SuperCopy. But keep in mind that they can only skip damaged areas of the disk. This property will help in recovering audio and video files. As for games, this method is ineffective.
Try polishing the media with a cotton or silk cloth. This should be done in the direction from the center of the disk to its edges, but in no case in a circle. Try to do everything very carefully so as not to damage the disk even more. Instead of fabric, you can use special antistatic wipes, which are sold at any computer store.
Another somewhat unusual way is to put the damaged disc in the freezer for half an hour, after wrapping it in a plastic bag, which will prevent harmful moisture from entering. The media cooled in this way will take longer to heat up and during this time the drive will have time to read all the information you need from it. However, be careful not to keep the disc in the refrigerator, otherwise it will become brittle, which will subsequently lead to its failure.
To open an unreadable disc, wipe it using a soft cloth and a gentle detergent. This will help clean the disc from fingerprints or smudges. After this procedure, wait until the disc is completely dry.
note
Sources:
- how to open a disk if it won't open
Reading, restoring and copying data from damaged data is one of the most common tasks when working with removable media. The number of proposed solutions is huge, but when trying to systematize, they all come down to a limited set of action algorithms.
Instructions
Try using a soft cloth (silk or cotton) to polish disk. It is not recommended to use circular movements; movements from the center to the edges are considered correct.
Wipe the disk with a special antistatic cloth and insert it into another drive (if possible).
Place the damaged dik in the freezer for 30 minutes, after wrapping it in a bag. Repeated attempts to read a bad sector cause heating disk, which causes a change in the refractive index. A cooled disk is less susceptible to heating, which may help resolve the problem.
Try using software (SuperCopy, BadCopy) to replace the values of bad sectors with zeros or try to create an image disk using specialized applications (Alcohol, Ahead Nero).
Use utilities like Nero Drive Speed or Slow CD to change (slow down) the reading speed disk or download the specialized Non-Stop Copy program, which does not require installation and is freely distributed on the Internet.
Unzip and launch the Non-Stop Copy application.
Follow the procedure for quickly copying a damaged disk. At the same time, unreadable sectors disk are marked as broken without stopping the copying process.
Proceed to the detailing process, during which the program determines the exact boundaries of the unreadable sector of the damaged disk or select the fine detail option if there are multiple damaged sets.
Complete the recovery procedure for the damaged disk performing the procedure for copying bad sectors. By default, the application makes five attempts to copy each damaged fragment.
Use the option to restore an entire directory containing one or more bad sectors using the specialized nscopyd.bat script included in the Non-Stop Copy program.
Call up the main menu of the operating system by clicking the “Start” button and go to “Run”.
Enter value "name_ disk:Program Files
scopy
scopyd.bat" "name_ disk:folder_to-be-copied" "name_ disk:path_to_location_of_copy_saving" and confirm the execution of the command by pressing the OK button.
Sources:
- How to copy a damaged disk in 2018
- bad sector on disk in 2018
A situation where it is not possible to normally play a compact disk or copy data from it, is familiar to many users. It is especially unpleasant if the disk contains some unique files - for example, an archive of photographs. You can try to restore an unreadable disk.
You will need
- - soft cloth;
- - toothpaste;
- - information recovery programs;
Instructions
Most often, the readability of information is affected by scratches on the disk and various contaminations. Cheap drives are most prone to failure; their low price is explained precisely by the low quality of the protective coating. If the disk is no longer readable or you cannot read all the information, carefully inspect its working surface. Remove any existing dirt with a soft cloth slightly moistened with water.
To remove shallow scratches, use a simple method that gives good results. Apply toothpaste to a damp cloth and polish the damaged area. There are subtleties here: you need to polish across the scratches. Most often, scratches go along the recorded tracks, so you need to polish using movements from the center of the disc to the edges. If the disc is severely scratched, this work may take up to half an hour. Then rinse off the paste, rinse the disc, dry it, wipe it with a soft cloth and try to play it.
If the disk is still unreadable or you do not want to polish it, use special utilities. One of the best in this regard is the AnyReader program; you can find download links on the Internet. After downloading the program, install it and run it. In the program window that opens, recovery options will be indicated, usually the first one is needed - “Copying files from damaged media.” Select this item and click the “Next” button.
The program will open the disk, check the boxes in the list provided for the files that you need to save, and click “Next” again. In the new window, specify the folder where the recovered files will be saved. Click Next. The file will begin copying. After it is completed, the report that appears will indicate whether it was possible to copy the file in its entirety.
To recover data, you can use other utilities: Max Data Recovery, File Salvage, NSCopy. The IsoBuster program gives good results, allowing you to extract information from the most problematic disks. Its disadvantage is that it works slowly. It is convenient to run this program overnight - by morning the disk image will be created.
Video on the topic
Almost always, to maintain privacy when entering passwords, the corresponding programs display unreadable characters - “asterisks” instead of the entered characters. However, if you see these same asterisks in the password entry field, this does not mean that the password is actually placed in this field. password. Often, such asterisks do not hide anything, but have a purely informational function - to let you know that when you enter password will be hidden from prying eyes.
Instructions
Discard the asterisk intent in web pages retrieved from the server. In the vast majority of cases, passwords are not transmitted by the server to the user's browser. You can verify this by opening the source code of the page received by your web browser - it will not contain the password, either in clear or encrypted form. Passwords are transmitted over the Internet in only one direction - from the browser to the server.
Use any specialized application program that can read passwords in open windows of other programs. There are no such tools as part of the service components of the operating system. It would be strange if a decryption program were included in the same package as programs that ensure password security. The required program is easy to find on the Internet - for example, it could be Pass Checker. The program consists of six files (including a help file) with a total weight of only 296 kilobytes and does not require installation. You can directly launch files onto your hard drive or removable media by double-clicking on the Password.exe file.
Open the program whose stars you are interested in. Then place the Pass Checker window above the open program and with the left mouse button drag the skull image onto the field with the hidden asterisks password. This field will be highlighted with a blinking frame, and in the Pass Checker window opposite the window text the decoder will place password in its unencrypted form. This password you can copy and use as you wish.
Click the Help button in the bottom row of buttons if you want to use more advanced password decryption methods. In addition to the simplest one, described in the previous step, the program provides two more options. Despite the English-language interface, Pass Checker help is written in English, so there will be no problems.
Video on the topic
It happens that important documents, dear photographs, videos and other information stored on a DVD are inaccessible for reading or viewing. There may be several reasons for this: for example, your disk is physically worn out, made of poor quality material, or scratched. And read or copy the necessary files from damaged disk does not work, even though they are displayed in the operating system explorer.
Instructions
Use special programs that directly, without using standard Windows tools, read information from DVDs. These utilities repeatedly try to read the damaged part of the disk, continuing this process even after reading errors occur, and as a result, they “pull out” the information in its original form. And if that doesn’t work, then many of these programs simply change unread sectors to zeros (although some defect may appear at this point in the document). Of course, you most likely won’t achieve perfect recovery, but it’s still better than losing your data forever.
Download, for example, CDCheck. This is one of the popular and simple programs. By checking DVDs in detail, it identifies damaged files and restores them. To ensure the program works, select the corresponding document, and then click on the “Check” button and specify the folder into which you want to copy the information.
Damaged or lost data from unreadable (hard to read) disks can be recovered using the BadCopy Pro utility. Having selected the desired mode (it depends on whether the file is displayed in the operating system, but not read, or the data in Windows Explorer is invisible at all), click on the “Next” button, and the process will start. True, this will take a lot of time, because the information will have to be restored separately in each folder.
Another program - IsoBuster - will help you recover lost data stored on a broken DVD. To do this, run the utility and insert the disk into the drive, after which its layout will appear in the panel on the left, and the files on the right. If you cannot find them, you need to run the search command for missing files and folders.
Video on the topic
Very often as a result of mechanical wear or various damage disk becomes unreadable, and the computer categorically refuses to open it. To deal with this trouble, you can use several simple methods that will restore damaged media and help you save important information from imminent destruction.
The laser disc has undergone significant changes since its inception, evolving from a CD with a data capacity of 650 megabytes to a capacious Blu-ray capable of storing up to 50 gigabytes and more. However, despite such obvious progress, optical media has not gotten rid of many of the problems and shortcomings that have plagued it from the very beginning. For example, after recording another disc (even if the recording drive that was used was completely new), it is impossible to say with one hundred percent certainty that all the data was correctly copied to the disk. Another inconvenience of working with optical media is related to the growing volume of information. It has become many times more difficult to navigate which drive to look for a particular program or document on. And finally, the most important “disadvantages” of a laser disc are data loss due to mechanical damage (scratched surface of the disc) or as a result of a recording error. However, so far there is no serious alternative to optical media, so it is necessary to look for ways to solve these problems, at least partially. Utilities with which you can evaluate the condition of disks and recover data from them will be discussed in today’s review.
CDCheck 3.1
Developer: Mitja PerkoDistribution size: 1.5 MB
Spreading: shareware
Interface: Russian It is possible to draw a conclusion about the condition of the disk “by eye” only if obvious mechanical damage is visible on its surface, indicating careless handling of the media. The more scratched and dirty the working side of the disk is, the higher the likelihood of failures when reading data from the media. But even if, after the most thorough inspection, no cracks or scratches are found, this does not indicate that the data from the CDDVD will be read correctly by the device. Recording errors can also occur as a result of a software glitch or due to the failure of the recording device. Many people use a simple way to determine the quality of a recording - the media being tested is inserted into a DVD drive, after which the data from it is copied to the hard drive. The logic of this “test” is simple - if the data is copied, then the optical disk is in perfect order. Actually this is not true. The fact that the data was copied to the hard drive only means that some information was read by the drive, but the very fact that the copying process is completed does not guarantee that the data on the hard drive is completely identical to the data that was written to the media. You should also not rely entirely on comparing the sizes of the original and copied files - even if they match, the data may differ. Comparing data manually is inconvenient, especially when there are a lot of files on the media, so it is best to control the quality of recorded discs using a special utility such as CDCheck. One of the main functions of this utility is to determine the integrity of data on the media. For this purpose, the program generates a checksum for files and folders, a unique code for a particular case, by which one can judge the reliability of a copy of the data.
CDCheck works with different types of checksums - MD2, MD4, MD5, Adler32, CRC32, SHA (1, 256, 348, 512), Tiger (128, 160, 192), etc. Before burning a disc, the program can analyze the contents of the future media on the subject of compatibility of data recorded on CD/DVD with ISO image standards. Data verification can be performed either by checksum or by the “source-copy” principle. At the end of the scan, the program can launch an external anti-virus scanner, checking the content for viruses. CDCheck allows you to set the priority of a job, and also has a data recovery function by repeatedly reading disk sectors. When a certain percentage of reliability is reached, which can be set in the program settings, the data can be considered recovered.
By processing data with CDCheck, you can monitor detailed process statistics: average data reading speed, estimated data processing time, number of scanned files and folders. The utility supports command line operation and provides detailed information about the CD/DVD/BD media used.
DiskInternals CD & DVD Recovery 3.5
Developer: DiskInternals ResearchDistribution size: 3.5 MB
Spreading: shareware
Interface: English A utility for recovering lost information from optical media is one tool from a whole set of various tools for recovering lost data that the developers of DiskInternals Research offer. This program can work with any optical media: from CD-R and DVR-R, to dual-layer discs and DVD-RAM. CD & DVD Recovery detects "missing" files recorded in ISO9660, UDF and Joliet systems. This data can also be recovered if the data was written to the disk in multi-session mode.
The operation of restoring damaged or deleted data is greatly simplified thanks to the step-by-step wizard included in the program. Following his instructions, you need to select the media whose contents are inaccessible, and then specify the parameters of the files to be restored. So, for example, for a more accurate data search result, you should determine the approximate size of the files to be resuscitated, as well as indicate the approximate time of their creation. These criteria are of particular importance when analyzing a disc with multiple recordings, on which there are many “traces” of old information once recorded on this medium. CD & DVD Recovery identifies the location of lost data on a disk and can work with long file names. The program provides access to files from any track, even if the session on the disk was not closed correctly.
CDRoller 8.0
Developer: Digital Atlantic CorpDistribution size: 6 MB
Spreading: shareware
Interface: English The problem of unreadable disks has given rise to a mass of utilities created to solve it. Some programs are designed to test the quality of recording media, others are designed to read surviving information. Typically, this uses a multiple read method, where the program tries to copy the data from the damaged disk as accurately as possible. However, in practice, these utilities cannot always save the situation. For example, if the copied file is large and contains one or more unreadable fragments, then such data may not be suitable for further use.
The simplest example of such a situation is a damaged DVD with a movie recorded on it. As you know, the contents of the DVD-video format usually look like a Video_ts folder, where menu and navigation files are located, as well as large files with the .vob extension, which contain video and sound. If the unreadable area of the disk is in the place where the vob file was recorded, this file will be partially damaged, resulting in a large fragment of the video being lost. It is possible to partially restore the remaining video. Firstly, for this you can use additional tools that can correct errors in the video file code. However, if the damaged area is large, then such utilities will not be able to cope with the recovery. Other programs that can fix a video file will use re-compression, which will inevitably lead to a loss of original quality. The CDRoller utility can solve this problem faster and more efficiently than many other programs. Having copied readable data from such a disk to the hard drive, CDRoller will analyze the vob file and divide it into separate fragments (movie scenes), saving them in the MPEG format familiar to the DVD video standard, without loss of quality. In this case, you can simply exclude the scene with the fragment where the defect is present, and record a new disc with the surviving data.
Thanks to the built-in recording module, the disc burning procedure can be performed directly in CDRoller. The program allows you to burn recovered files and folders, videos, as well as ISO image files.
The disk cataloging tool built into the program uses so-called short images (Short CD/DVD Image). In fact, these are not real images, but only data about the contents of the indexed disk - a list of all files and directories on the disk, with a preserved structure. Each time a new disc is read, the program can automatically create such a short image and write it to a specific folder, thus compiling a library of all discs. In the future, if you need to quickly find a specific file, you can use CDRoller to search the entire library of images. The data search tool is implemented very flexibly; the search query can be refined using various search criteria. For example, you can set the minimum and maximum size of the file being searched, define the subject of the search (for example, only folders, files, or both), specify the creation date, etc. Another feature of CDRoller is the ability to work with audio discs. Despite the relative durability of audio discs, sometimes it only takes one tiny scratch for a CD player to refuse to play a particular track or even recognize the disc. In order to save the recording, the program uses digital data extraction (Digital Audio Extraction). During the audio reading process, CDRoller can use jitter correction and also use sector re-reading to detect errors or loss of synchronization. The read tracks can be immediately converted into various digital audio formats - WAV, MP3, MP2, OGG, etc. The program can encode audio CDs on the fly, without creating an intermediate WAV file. To evaluate the quality of optical media, CDRoller runs a series of tests (the test can be started by selecting the drive from the list of available devices and using a keyboard shortcut), selecting a test method depending on the type of data recorded. The program checks the ISO 9660 file system and also checks the disk surface, after which it displays a detailed generated report on various media properties - the number of detected sessions, the program in which the recording was made, the size of the file allocation table, the list of unreadable folders, etc.
Please note that this check cannot be applied to disks with the UDF file system. Errors on optical media with such a file system are detected automatically. This data recording format is widely used by various models of DVD camcorders, DVD recorders, as well as batch recording applications such as Roxio Drag-To-Disc and Nero InCD. Users who have to deal with such discs often encounter a situation where the captured and recorded video is not played back. Typically, data recording errors occur at the session closing stage. They can be found when working with devices from a variety of manufacturers - Lite-On, Thomson RCA, Philips, Panasonic, etc. In most cases, CDRoller allows you to partially or even completely recover this data.
IsoBuster 2.5
Developer: Smart ProjectsDistribution size: 4.8 MB
Spreading: shareware
Interface: Russian This program is a universal data recovery tool. Many users consider this utility to be the best tool for “fixing” unreadable data from optical disks and, I must say, with good reason. The program is updated regularly, and the long list of its features grows from version to version. At the moment, IsoBuster can resuscitate data from almost any media, including BD and HD DVDs.
The secret of IsoBuster's popularity is, first of all, that this program understands all existing file systems that are used today to record data. The utility works with the contents of images; it can be used to mount images and extract data from them, as well as directly run files. The program supports the formats of all popular disc burning programs, such as CDRWin, CloneCD, DiscJuggler, BlindWrite, WinOnCD, NTI, Plextools and many others. IsoBuster can also be used to create an exact image of the source disk, and the image can be written in .iso, .bin, .tao formats, created with cue markings and a .md5 checksum to determine data integrity.
The program makes it possible to check the status of the media (you don’t even have to extract data to the hard drive) and can create a list of files containing read errors. If the program detects bad sectors when reading a disk image, IsoBuster can collect statistics of bad disk areas and save it to a separate file. If restrictions are imposed on the file system (for example, FAT), the created image files can be divided into parts, the size of which is specified in the IsoBuster settings.
