How to Recover Data from Unreadable CD DVD
Saturday, December 5th, 2009I have seen so many ways how to recover data from scratches CD or DVC, some people say you can use banana then apply it to CD surface, the other say you can use peanut butter with coke also, I saw it in YouTube. I think it will work great to minimize the CD/DVD surface scratches. But if there is other way by using Recover Disk software.
Here is a show you step by step how to recover your data from Recovers data from;
- scratched and damaged CD/DVD,
- Recovers data from incorrectly burned CD/DVD
- Retrieves data from all sessions on multi-session discs
Step 1: Insert a CD/DVD Disc and Analyze It
Recover Disc starts reading the content of inserted CD/DVD disc immediately after you run the program. It will take some time to read and analyze disc content. Then the program displays folder tree in the left pane of the window. You can browse the content of any folder right like you do in the Windows Explorer.
If you insert a disc when the program is already running or change discs in the CD/DVD reading device, then you should click the “Refresh” button on the toolbar to start reading the inserted disc.
If there are several CD/DVD reading devices on your computer, you can switch between them using combo-box at the top of the left pane.
Step 2: Find Required Files on the Disc
You can browse the content of your CD/DVD right like you do in the Windows Explorer. When you select a folder in the left pane, you see its content in the right pane. Now you can select files and folders that you want to recover and get to the next step.
If you do not see required files on the disc, it may be that they were recorded in previous sessions and were not included in the TOC (table of contents) of the last session on the disc. Sometimes this happens on multisession discs either intentionally or by mistake. Recover Disc allows viewing such files in a special Expert View mode. This mode shows the full disc structure with all recorded sessions and tracks. Click the “Expert View” button on the toolbar to switch to the Expert View mode.
Now you can see all sessions recorded on the CD/DVD disc. You can browse the content of each session separately to find the required files.
Step 3: Extract Files from the Disc
After you select files and folders that you want to recover, click the “Extract” button on the toolbar. The “Extract” dialog will be displayed.
Output folder: Here you select a folder where you want to save the recovered files or folders.
Restore folder structure: If you check this option, the full branch of the folders tree containing selected files and folders will be recovered to the output folder.
If some disc appears to be partially unreadable with Recover Disc on your computer, you can try to extract all available data from the disc and then read that disc on another system or with different CD/DVD reading device. The program allows reading a part of a file on one device and a part of the same file on another device. When you extract a file from a disc and some problem areas cannot be properly read, the corresponding places in the extracted file are left blank (filled with zeroes). When you later try to extract the same file, the program reads only the blocks that were not extracted before and merges them with the previously extracted data.
The following options let you specify what to do when the program finds file with the same name in the output folder.
Merge: The program will merge the file being extracted with the existing one. Use this option to merge the newly extracted content with the previously saved data.
Overwrite: The program will overwrite the existing file with a newly extracted one.
Skip: The program will skip such files.
Ask: Each time the program finds a file that already exists in the output folder, it will ask you what to do. You will see the following dialog.
Select either “Overwrite”, “Merge” or “Skip”.
You can check the “Apply to all” option if you want to apply the chosen action to other files as well. Then the program will perform the specified action automatically without asking you each time.
After you specify all options in the “Extract” dialog, click “OK” to start the extraction process.
If there are several sessions on your disc containing a file being extracted, you will see the following dialog.
Here you should choose a file version that you want to extract – select a desired session in the displayed list and click “Extract”.
You can check the “Choose this session automatically for remaining files” option if you want to use this session for other files as well.
For each of the files being extracted you can see the progress of extraction.
Settings: This button shows/hides program settings. You can change these settings during the extraction of files. Changes are automatically applied and saved.
Skip file: Click this button if you want to skip the extraction of the current file. You will see a dialog where you should confirm or cancel the operation. If you skip the file, the program will continue extracting other files from the disc.
Stop: Click this button if you want to stop the extraction process. You will see a dialog where you should confirm or cancel the operation.
If a file is partially extracted and you click the “Skip file” or “Stop” button, the program will ask you whether to delete the partially extracted file or not. Select “Yes” to delete it or “No” to save the partially extracted file in the output folder.
It may be that your file contains unreadable blocks. Read here how to handle this situation most efficiently.
Step 4: How to Deal with Bad Blocks
If your CD/DVD disc is scratched or damaged, then most probably it contains unreadable blocks and some of your files can be fully or partially unreadable. If the program is unable to read some block during the extraction, it will try to read that block again until either the block is successfully read or the number of retries reaches the maximum value of read retries specified in program settings.
You can change these settings during the extraction of files. They are displayed at the bottom of the extraction dialog.
To change the maximum number of read retries, move the pointer to the left or to the right. If the number of read retries for some block reaches this value and the program is still unable to read it, the block is marked unreadable.
You can also specify what to do when such block is found. The program can either show a prompt message asking you what to do further, or automatically fill that block with zeroes.
Show prompt message: If you select this option, the program will show a prompt message asking you what to do after a block is found to be unreadable: either to continue the attempts to read that block, or to fill it with zeroes.
Automatically fill it with zeroes and continue: After unreadable block is found, the program will automatically fill it with zeroes and continue reading the file.
The prompt message (for the “Show prompt message” option) is shown below.
Retry again: If you select this option, the program will retry reading that block until either it is successfully read or the number of retries reaches the maximum value of read retries.
Skip block and fill it with zeroes: If you select this option, the program will skip the unreadable block and fill it with zeroes.
Skip all unreadable blocks: If you check this option, the program will automatically skip all unreadable blocks without showing the prompt message again.
Unreadable blocks are marked with red on the progress bar during the extraction process. Healthy blocks are shown in green. Light green and light red colors on the progress bar are used to mark areas that have been already read before during the previous recovery attempt.
When the extraction is finished, you will see the following message:
Finally let us resume what you can do to extract a corrupted file from a CD/DVD disc.
Try to extract a desired file. If the program is unable to read some blocks, you can retry reading them.
If the attempts to read the block are unsuccessful, choose the option to skip that block (fill it with zeroes). The corresponding part of extracted file in the output folder will be filled with zeroes.
When a file is partially extracted on one CD/DVD reading device, you can try to read it on another system or with a different CD/DVD reading device and merge extracted parts of the same file.
In addition you can try to physically wipe or polish your CD/DVD disc and then continue reading the problem file. But before doing that you should extract all the other data from your disc to avoid damaging it.
Viewing the results of data recovery
After the extraction process is finished, you can view the results of data recovery. Select any folder in the left pane and you will see its content in the right pane.
For each extracted file you can see the status of extraction in the “Status” column. Green color indicates the successful extraction, while red parts correspond to unreadable blocks.
Tags: CD DVD Data Recovery