New program to recover DVD CD disc. Damaged CD or DVD: how to recover data from an optical disc

As you know, optical discs have a short lifespan. A disc may become unreadable for a variety of reasons - scratches, physical wear, poor quality material from which the disc was made, etc. Data on such a disk means operating system it is no longer possible to read and copy, although the files and folders on it are faithfully displayed in Windows Explorer. It is clear that you need to think about such situations in advance and worry about the availability of a certain amount in a timely manner. backup copies. But in practice, everything often turns out to be completely different, because many users postpone the backup operation until the last moment (in the secret hope that everything will work out just the same). And as a result, at one fine moment they find themselves faced with the fact that photographs, videos, music videos that are extremely valuable to them, and sometimes even important documents and distributions turn out to be completely inaccessible. At the same time, it is quite possible that the data can still be read using special utilities. The fact is that the OS, if it is not able to correctly read information from the damaged part of the disk, interrupts copying and deletes the already copied part of the file. And specialized utilities, using other data reading mechanisms, can ultimately read such files and copy them (although, of course, they do not guarantee 100% recovery of all files). These utilities read information from CD/DVD drives by directly accessing them, bypassing standard Windows tools. They make multiple attempts to read the damaged section of the disk, and at the same time they can continue reading/copying information after reading errors have occurred, which often allows them to “pull” the treasured information from the disks in its original form. If this number does not work, then most such programs, without further ado, simply replace unreadable sectors with zeros - naturally, some kind of defect will eventually appear in this place in the file. It is clear that in practice, not all files recovered in this way will be suitable for further use. For example, in the case of text documents, after such a restoration, a couple of paragraphs will disappear, but this is undoubtedly better than the complete loss of an important document that you wrote over the course of a whole month. In the case of audio and video data, everything can also work out quite decently - it’s unpleasant, of course, if at some point while listening to your favorite melody or watching a video, you hear some strange sound or see strange phantoms on the screen, but again, this will happen better than completely losing treasured materials. With software it’s more difficult, but it still makes sense to try to recover data, because the ill-fated bad sectors may also end up on some auxiliary file, which you won’t need at all during installation.

CDCheck 3.1.14.0

When processing data with the program, you can monitor detailed statistics of the process: the average speed of data reading, the estimated processing time, the number of scanned files and folders. In addition, when a broken file is detected, its name with an error code is displayed in the lower window.

To restore files in a specific folder or the entire disk as a whole, select the corresponding object, click on the "Check" button and specify the folder to copy the data. Recovery parameters are customizable - in particular, you can specify the number of repetitions for reading bad sectors and set the level of statistical correctness that you want to achieve when restoring data.

The execution of this operation is also extremely clear - the recovery progress is displayed, the files that had problems during recovery are listed, and the final status of their recovery is indicated.

BadCopy Pro 4.10

After this, they indicate the data that needs to be copied from a disk that cannot be read normally - this is not implemented in the most user-friendly way, since it is not possible to select a list of folders along with their attached files and other folders, and only single files are allowed to be specified. As a result, you will have to restore information in each folder separately - long and hard. At the same step, it is easy to adjust the scanning depth and speed using the “Recovery Option” switch. It can be set in one of three positions: "Max Data", "Normal" and "Max Speed" - in the first position the maximum scanning depth is achieved, and in the third - the maximum speed. The second option is intermediate, selected by default and considered optimal for most cases.

The recovery process begins immediately after clicking on the “Next” button, and the program informs about its effectiveness by displaying the copied files, their final status (that is, whether the file was recovered or not) and the progress of the operation.

Upon completion, the program will ask in which folder on the hard drive to save the read files.

In the same window, you can view the recovered text files (TXT, BAT, INF, LOG) and images (BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, etc.) by selecting the file of interest and clicking on the "Preview" button. Other files are viewed only in hexadecimal format.

IsoBuster 2.6

After this, to start data recovery, which can be done for the entire disk as a whole, or for individual folders and files, you need to select the object to be restored and call the “Extract” command from the context menu, and then specify the folder to save this data.

During the data recovery process, the program reports only the file being read at a particular time and the overall progress of the operation.

If you hit a bad sector, which for some reason the utility finds fewer than others tested for this review analog programs, it stops and asks the question whether to try to read this sector again or skip it. Attempts to re-read initially unreadable sectors, as in other programs, are often successful. At the same time, the first time it hits a bad sector, it is possible to configure the utility to skip all such sectors in the future. In our opinion, such intrusiveness is tedious - the developers of other solutions acted much more wisely, in which the user is initially asked to determine in one way or another (through the number of attempts to read bad sectors, the choice of recovery method, etc.) the relationship between data quality and the speed of the operation. Although in comparison with the fact that in general the program recovers data quite successfully, these are just trifles.

Scratched your CD/DVD disc? Can't read? Well, why are you so careless about storing them? Now we will restore the disk, or rather the data from it.

Are you surprised? Are you taking the disc to the trash can already? Stop! You can get most of the information back from it. How to recover an unreadable disk?

There are many ways. I'll tell you about some of them now. And we will be helped by a wonderful program for recovering data from damaged disks - AnyReader. She is one of the best in this field.

The first thing I advise is to lower the reading speed of your drive. Sometimes it helps. If it still doesn’t read, then we move on to harsh actions.

Personally, I have brought more than one disc back to life simply by polishing it with regular toothpaste and a handkerchief. A little water and paste, plus patience for 30-40 minutes and the result is amazing.

The only thing that is important is that the movements should not be too fast, but always from the center of the disk to its outer edge and back. Otherwise, you will only lengthen the scratches. After all, the drive reads disks in a circle. Also, a flat surface under the suffering disc is important. At the end of the torture - copious rinsing under running water and wiping dry, poor fellows.

While preparing this material, I saw several more ways to restore damaged, worn-out disks. Who is ready for what?

Some polish jeans, without paste. Others rub scratches with teaspoons and then treat them with felt. Still others, they cover the damaged areas with green paint so that the laser does not go astray. In short, they go to great lengths just to save the data.

And we use the utility AnyReader, specifically designed for our purpose - to recover an unreadable disk.

Download AnyReader

Download the most new version you can always with manufacturer's official website. Or using the search.

Unpack archive and copy the file...

...to a pre-created folder. In the future, do not move it anywhere. Now we click on this shortcut and another one appears in our new folder...

Don't worry - that's how it should be. You can look into it, but there is nothing interesting there - although you won’t have time. AnyReader program started...

Choose the option that suits you best and press the button indicated by your finger...

...and mark the file that you want to extract from the damaged media (I show the example of the first point - in others everything is also very simple and clear).

Specify the location where to save the recovered file...

...I mistakenly chose the location in the previous action - no problem...

That's all. Now you know how to recover an unreadable disk.

There are many reasons for information corruption. However, regardless of the degree of damage to the mirror surface, it is almost always possible to save data. This can be done in various ways. There are specialized applications that make it possible to resuscitate information even from almost unreadable blanks.

Causes of disk damage

The most common situations that arise are:

• there are problems with the drive;
• the CD has a large number of scratches;
• cracks;
• the substrate is damaged;
• there was a failure during recording;
• The RW blank was erased for subsequent rewriting to it.

Photo: data loss percentage

In each of the above cases, the contents can be saved in various ways. The easiest way is to use programs to recover data from CDs and DVDs. There are also various mechanical methods - the impact is carried out directly on the unreadable surface.

Drive problems

Often the problem is not with the CD, but with the drive.

There are many reasons for this situation:

• low quality optics used in the device;
• the correction algorithm is not powerful enough;
• There are dust particles or other foreign objects on the focusing lens.

To test devices for working with the media in question, you just need to try reading the drive on a different drive. If this succeeds, then the device is to blame. Otherwise, the reason lies directly in the blank itself. This situation can be resolved by lowering the spindle speed - the lower it is, the higher the probability of successful reading.

Surface contamination

One of the most common causes of reading problems is surface contamination. Most often there are fingerprints or the most common dust. Dealing with this kind of pollution is quite simple. It is enough to carefully wipe the surface with special wipes for cleaning office equipment, then repeat the process with a dry cloth.

It is very important to wipe not in a circular motion along paths, but from the center of the drive to its edge. Since radial scratches, which can be caused when a grain of sand or other object hits the surface of a rag, will cause much less damage than concentric ones.

Under no circumstances should you use the following substances to remove dirt:

• acetone;
• nail polish solvent;
• petrol;
• kerosene.

The substances listed above may damage the material from which the CD/DVD is made.

Scratches

Gaining access to information is greatly hampered by various types of mechanical damage. First of all, these are the most common scratches. The polished surface is quite fragile, so damage can be done very simply - just one grain of sand is enough.

Mechanical damage can be classified according to their shape and location:

• narrow;
• wide;
• concentric.

Narrow scratches usually do not pose a serious danger due to the large number of various correction algorithms. Wide scratches are more dangerous - the reading machine may simply lose a track, while starting to read the next one.

Concentric scratches cause the most problems. Since they usually damage an entire sector of information. Most correction algorithms are unable to cope with this type of problem because the positioning system cannot operate normally. This situation can only be resolved by polishing the surface.

Cracks

Another big problem is cracks.

They come in two types:

• from the center;
• from the edge.

With frequent use of the drive at high speeds, defects of this type only get worse. The situation can be corrected with the help of mechanical repairs and special software for resuscitation of information.

Damage to the substrate

Often the cause of problems is damage to the substrate.

Photo: damage to the substrate upon contact

Defects occur of this type in the following cases:

• storage conditions are not met;
• the blanks are of low quality.

Most often, the substrate is damaged due to liquid getting between it and the polycarbonate. This usually occurs due to the lack of varnish coating on the ends, or when the drive is stored in a room with high humidity.

Recording failed

Sometimes a CD/DVD becomes damaged during recording. This usually happens due to a software error or some incorrect actions of the user himself.

The easiest way to access information is in the following cases:

• additional recording was performed on RW-type multisession media;
• An error was made during the current session.

Recovering data from a CD in such cases is usually not difficult. It is enough to use specialized software.

The rewritable disc has been erased or overwritten

Sometimes it is necessary to return information lost when erased or overwritten.

Such processes can be divided into the following types:

• quick erase;
• complete erasure.

When using quick erase, data can be partially restored. If full is applied, then the data is lost forever.

Video: restoring a CD DVD with scratches

Disk recovery methods

At the moment, all resuscitation methods can be divided into the following categories:

• software;
• hardware;
• mechanical.

Program

There is a large selection of different software for resuscitating damaged media. Software of this type simply fills unreadable content with empty bits, or makes copies from neighboring areas. This method Not suitable for all file types.

Each application is quite effective at restoring access to lost content. But this method does not always help - in such a situation it is advisable to resort to a hardware or mechanical method of data recovery.

Hardware

To carry out hardware resuscitation of the drive, utilities are used that have specialized drivers built into them. They make it possible to use cluster reading - this way you can avoid freezing the operating system while working with a damaged disc. Thanks to this type of reading, information loss can be minimized.

Some readers have built-in functions:

• improved focusing of the laser beam;
• ellipsoid compensation.

Mechanical

If the defects on the surface are very extensive, then mechanical restoration - polishing - can be used. To carry out this operation, special equipment is required, as well as extensive experience. Also, all kinds of scratches are repaired in the same way as cracks on car glass - drilling is done, after which the edges are glued together with polymer.

Copying and reconstruction methods

The copy and reconstruction method can be used in the following cases:

• it is possible to read TOS, the directory tree - but there is no access to the required files and individual folders;
• when trying to read the drive, the OS freezes;
• The reader tries to access the data at different speeds, but there is no positive result.

If it is impossible to gain access to the TOC, you can use sector-by-sector reading or intelligent processing. If the media is not recognized, then it is advisable to make an image of it and subsequently reconstruct the damaged areas using special software.

TOC cannot be read, do a hot swap

If the TOC is not readable and the blank is not recognized by the drive, you can perform the hot swap process.

For successful reading, only three TOC fields are required:

The hot swap process requires the availability of a similar, fully written disk, as well as disassembly of the device for reading.

The hot swap process itself is as follows:

• a new CD/DVD is inserted;
• after reading, the TOC is replaced with an unreadable one (the drive will need to be disassembled);
• a specialized software for reconstruction.

How to recover data from a CD

There is a large amount of different software available for resuscitation of drives of this type. It can be either commercial or free. This usually does not affect its reliability.

ISOBuster

To resuscitateCD/ DVDwith helpISOBuster, you need to do the following:

• open the utility and select the device in the left part of the window;

• In the right part of the window, call up the context menu for the desired object and click on “create IBP/IBQ image file”.

After the process is completed, you will need to mount the resulting image to work with it.

To resuscitate data usingrequired:

The whole process takes a lot of time. But upon completion, the user will be able to access the files.

Recovery Toolbox for CD Free

Work withRecoveryToolboxforCDFreecarried out as follows:

• after launch, a device selection window will open;

In this article, I briefly described steps that can help recover data in the most common cases of CD loss and DVD discs.

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 to use more than 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:

1. According to the integrity of the reflective layer:
   1. The scratch did not affect the reflective coating, only the polycarbonate backing was damaged.
   2. The reflective coating is damaged.
   type="a">
2. By width and location:
   1. Narrow scratches. Due to the redundancy of stored information and the use of various corrective algorithms by the drive, they are not very dangerous.
   2. 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.
   3. 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.
   type="a">

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.

Eat different ways polishing 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

There are two types of cracks - those running from the center of the disk to the edge, and vice versa, from the edges to the center. Cracks from the center are formed from microdamages that occur on the inner radius of the disk due to careless handling or due to defects in the blanks, and then transform into cracks at high rotation speeds. Edge cracks are usually caused by rough handling but will get worse, especially on poorly balanced rims.

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 protective covering 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 quick formatting on a hard drive, when only TOC is deleted - file system disk, then the data can be recovered. 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:

1. 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.
2. 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
3. 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 DVD-RW disc, then to prepare a donor disk, whose TOC will be recorded in 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 a recorded file for the entire volume 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 spin down programmatically and change new disk to unreadable. 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 utility rich in available capabilities 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 Tools->Open Disk menu item, 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 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. Eat minimal settings algorithm.

Reprinting or quoting is permitted provided that a direct link is maintained, data recovery from DVD CD to our website.

Free disk recovery program created specifically to help with the loss of digital information. Thanks to a variety of software, you can easily copy data from any format of unreadable laser discs without much difficulty and without additional investment. Often, the default optical drive settings desktop computer is not enough for the system to read information located on unstable flexible devices such as CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs. In this case you can no problem download disk recovery program for free .

CDCheck. CD Check 3.1.14.0 is designed to recover data primarily on optical CDs.CDCheck can handle any of your damaged CDs and DVDs.

1.5 MB

. CD Recovery toolbox (portable) is free program recovering information from the most common types disk media. Most often we have to deal with the loss of information on Blu-Ray discs, DVDs, CDs, etc.

500 KB

. File Salvage is a miniature program measuring 217 Kb. Its scope of activity includes emergency copying of data from a problematic optical disk to HDD PC.

200 KB

. Non Stop Copy v 1.04 is one of the most productive software tools for recovering files from a wide variety of laser discs.

126 KB

. IsoBuster pro is an excellent mobile tool whose main task is to recover information from optical storage media using various methods.

3.5 MB

. This is a professional tool for Reserve copy data from unreadable CDs and DVDs.Sector-by-sector reading of information written to the disk allows deaddiscdoctor to cope with its task perfectly.

1.7 MB

. Diskinternals cd dvd recovery - professional utility for resuscitation deleted files. The main working platform of this program is optical data media in the formats DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD-R, CD-RW, etc.

7.4 MB

. This is a small application that can copy music from laser CDs to other disk devices.

6.1 MB

. The CDRoller utility has ample hardware capabilities for working with data from problematic old-style laser discs. Using this program, you can recover various files from hard-to-read DVD and CD discs.

5.3 MB

. Super Copy is a time-tested tiny piece of software whose main task is to copy digital data from problematic disk drives.

223 KB

. Unstoppable copier is an indispensable assistant when recovering information from unstable storage media. It is designed to make copies digital files, located on problematic disk drives.

390 KB

. The compact AnyReader software has all the necessary powers to create copies of files from unstable digital storage media.

3 MB

. DiskDigger is a compact software application that allows you to copy digital files from problematic sources. This software is ready to restore access to lost information on hard drives, optical drives, memory cards, USB flash drives, etc.

370 KB

. The AKOL utility is a recognized leader in the field of emergency copying of digital files from unstable storage media. The AKOL program supports many such disk devices, ranging from hard drives to laser disks.

950 KB