Recovering Dataholic

August 5, 2005 6:56 AM

Ack! I've got a CD-R with CRC errors!

Anyone have any luck with data recovery utilities (WinXP)? Which is the best? Would a data recovery service be any better? How much would it cost? What about using a plain old "scratch remover" device from Radio Shack or Wal-Mart (the CD-R in question looks pretty clean to me)? Thanks!

posted by ZenMasterThis to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

First try a different drive. Some are MUCH better than others at reading marginal media

If that doesn't help, try cleaning the disc. Best technique I know is to wipe gently but firmly with a used-once-but-otherwise-clean bath towel (soft, just perceptibly damp; more water than that tends to leave streaks). Make sure you wipe from the centre of the disc toward the outside, not round-and-round, so that any new scratches you make will cross the disc track at right angles.

If that doesn't work, polish the disc brutally and vigorously with a soft cloth and toothpaste (the expensive CD polish that comes in little plastic bags in cleaning kits is pretty much just toothpaste without the mint flavour), then give it a good rinse in warm (not hot) water and dry it off with the bath towel. Once again, do all your rubbing radially.

If that doesn't work, take it to your local video rental shop and ask them to run it through their DVD repolisher.
posted by flabdablet at 7:13 AM on August 5, 2005

Try IsoBuster to recover files from the disc. It's the best for recovering files from corrupted CDs and DVDs. You can also try slowing the drive down temporarily with a program like Nero DriveSpeed (download link).
posted by zsazsa at 8:17 AM on August 5, 2005

You don't need a utility, you need a Plextor. Purchase or borrow a Plextor drive. The best ever made for CD recovery is the Plextor UltraPlex 40x, but you'd need a SCSI bus to attach it to. I have saved probably on the order of 15 or 20 so-called "unreadable" CDs merely by sticking them in a Plextor UltraPlex and copying them at 1x read speed. It's only failed when the CD was seriously damaged.

Plextor drives are also the tool of choice for creating working copies of certain varieties of "copy protected" CDs, those which contain intentional CRC and formatting errors.
posted by majick at 8:32 AM on August 5, 2005

FWIW, after a year of fairly heavy use, my Plextor died a sudden and surprising death. I bought all the hype about their superior quality, but now it's just an expensive door stop.

isoBuster has helped me in the past.
posted by muckster at 9:12 AM on August 5, 2005

I've had good luck just using Nero and the "copy entire disk" option. Somehow by copying, the flaws are corrected. YMMV natch.
posted by Dag Maggot at 12:20 PM on August 5, 2005

i have an great program called cd check, probably can google it, if not i can post a link later at home. It checks cds/dvds for crc errors. You can use it to scan after you burn. And if there are cds with crc errors you can still extract the file (although the sector with the error will still be a bit corrupt). But this is better than annoying windows cutting you off and giving you an error.

Dont know what you're trying to extract from this cd. If it's an exe file, chances are it wont run after this. However, if it's a movie file, divx, xvid, whatever, it will still play.
posted by EvilKenji at 8:20 PM on August 5, 2005

I've had good luck with CD-R Diagnostic in the past. The preview version they now offer doesn't seem to be as functional as the old version, but you can probably find the "cdrdiag.exe" installer on the net somewhere.
posted by Myself at 5:40 AM on August 7, 2005