cd dvd data recovery. Free Disk Recovery Software

Hello.

Not so long ago, I had to recover some photos from a flash drive that was accidentally formatted. This is not an easy task, and while it was possible to recover most of the files, I had to get acquainted with almost all popular programs for data recovery.

In this article, I would like to list these programs (by the way, they can all be classified as universal, because they can recover files from both hard drives and other media, for example, from a memory card - SD, or flash drive USB).

It turned out not a small list of 22 programs ( further in the article, all programs are sorted alphabetically).

Website: http://7datarecovery.com/

OS: Windows: XP, 2003, 7, Vista, 8

Description:

Firstly, this utility immediately pleases you with the presence of the Russian language. Secondly, it is quite multifunctional, after launch, it offers you 5 recovery options:

Recovery of files from damaged and formatted hard disk partitions;

Recovery of accidentally deleted files;

Recover files deleted from flash drives and memory cards;

Disk partition recovery (when the MBR is damaged, the disk is formatted, etc.);

File recovery from Android phones and tablets.

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.file-recovery.net/

OS: Windows: Vista, 7, 8

Description:

A program for recovering accidentally deleted data or data from damaged disks. Supports multiple file systems: FAT (12, 16, 32), NTFS (5, + EFS).

In addition, it can work directly with the hard drive when its logical structure is broken. In addition, the program supports:

All types of hard drives: IDE, ATA, SCSI;

Memory cards: SunDisk, MemoryStick, CompactFlash;

USB devices (flash drives, external hard drives).

Screenshot:

3. Active Partition Recovery

OS: Windows 7, 8

Description:

One of the important features of this program is that it can be run under both DOS and Windows. This is possible due to the fact that it can be written to a bootable CD (well, a flash drive).

This utility is usually used to restore entire hard disk partitions, not individual files. By the way, the program allows you to make an archive (copy) of MBR tables and hard disk sectors ( boot data).

Screenshot:

4. Active UNDELETE

Website: http://www.active-undelete.com/

OS: Windows 7/2000/2003/2008/XP

Description:

I will tell you that this is one of the most versatile data recovery software. The main thing is that it supports:

1. all the most popular file systems: NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, NTFS5, NTFS+EFS;

2. works in all Windows operating systems;

3. Supports a wide range of storage media: SD, CF, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, ZIP, USB flash drives, USB external hard drives, etc.

Interesting features of the full version:

Support for hard drives larger than 500 GB;

Support for hardware and software RAID arrays;

Creation of emergency boot disks (about emergency disks);

The ability to search for deleted files by a variety of attributes (especially important when there are a lot of files, the hard drive is capacious, and you definitely don’t remember the name of the file or its extension).

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.aidfile.com/

OS: Windows 2000/2003/2008/2012, XP, 7, 8 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Description:

At first glance, it is not a very big utility, moreover, without the Russian language (but this is only at first glance). This program is able to recover data in a variety of situations: software error, accidental formatting, deletion, virus attacks, etc.

By the way, as the developers themselves say, the percentage of file recovery by this utility is higher than many of its competitors. Therefore, if other programs cannot recover your lost data, it makes sense to take the risk of checking the disk with this utility.

Some interesting features:

1. Recovers Word, Excel, Power Pont, etc. files.

2. Can recover files when reinstalling Windows OS;

3. Enough "strong" option to restore various photos and pictures (moreover, on different types of media).

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.byclouder.com/

OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8 (x86, x64)

Description:

What pleases this program is its simplicity. After starting, immediately (and on the great and mighty) prompts you to scan disks ...

The utility is able to search for a wide variety of file types: archives, audio and video, documents. You can scan different types of media (though with varying degrees of success): CDs, flash drives, hard drives, etc. It is quite easy to learn.

Screenshot:

7. Disk Digger

Website: http://diskdigger.org/

OS: Windows 7, Vista, XP

Description:

A fairly simple and convenient program (does not require installation, by the way), which will help you quickly and easily recover deleted files: music, movies, pictures, photos, documents. Media can be different: from a hard drive to flash drives and memory cards.

Supported file systems: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT and NTFS.

Summarizing: a utility with rather average capabilities, it will help mainly in the most “simple” cases.

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm

OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/Windows Server 2012/2008/2003 (x86, x64)

Description:

Great file recovery software! It will help in a variety of troubles: accidental deletion of files, unsuccessful formatting, partition damage, power failure, etc.

It is possible to recover even encrypted and compressed data! The utility supports all the most popular file systems: VFAT, FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS/NTFS5 EXT2, EXT3.

It sees and allows you to scan a wide variety of media: IDE / ATA, SATA, SCSI, USB, external hard drives, Fire wire (IEEE1394), flash drives, digital cameras, floppy disks, audio players and many other devices.

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.krollontrack.com/data-recovery/recovery-software/

OS: Windows 95/98Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7

Description:

One of the best data recovery programs that will help in the event of a simple error during deletion, and in cases where you no longer have to worry about other utilities.

Separately, it should be said that the program allows you to successfully find 255 different types of files (audio, video, documents, archives, etc.), supports FAT and NTFS systems, hard drives (IDE / ATA / EIDE, SCSI), floppy disks (Zip and Jazz).

Among other things, EasyRecovery has a built-in function that will help you check and evaluate the condition of the disk (by the way, in one of the articles we have already discussed the issue earlier).

The EasyRecovery utility helps to recover data in the following cases:

Accidental deletion (for example, when using the Shift button);
- Viral infection;
- Damage due to a power outage;
- Problems when creating partitions when installing Windows;
- Damage to the structure of the file system;
- Format the media or use the FDISK program.

Screenshot:

10. GetData Recovery My Files Professional

Website: http://www.recovermyfiles.com/

OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7

Description:

Recover My Files is a pretty good program for recovering various types of data: graphics, documents, music and video archives.

In addition, it supports all the most popular file systems: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and NTFS5.

Some features:

Support for over 300 data types;

Can recover files from HDD, flash cards, USB devices, floppy disks;

A special function for recovering Zip archives, PDF files, autoCad drawings (if your file fits this type, I definitely recommend trying this program).

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.handyrecovery.ru/

OS: Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7

Description:

A fairly simple program, with a Russian interface, designed to recover deleted files. It can be used in a variety of cases: a virus attack, software failures, accidental deletion of files from the recycle bin, formatting a hard drive, etc.

After scanning and analyzing, Handy Recovery will give you the ability to browse the disk (or other media, such as a memory card) in the same way as in a regular explorer, only along with "normal files" you will see files that have been deleted.

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.icare-recovery.com/

OS: Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000 pro, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

Description:

A very powerful program for recovering deleted and formatted files from various types of media: USB flash drives, SD memory cards, hard drives. The utility can help recover a file from an unreadable disk partition (Raw) if the MBR boot record is damaged.

Unfortunately, there is no support for the Russian language. After launch, you will be able to choose from 4 wizards:

1. Partition Recovery - a wizard that will help you recover deleted hard disk partitions;

2. Deleted File Recovery - this wizard is used to recover deleted file(s);

3. Deep Scan Recovery - scanning the disk for existing files and files that can be recovered;

4. Format Recovery - a wizard that will help you recover files after formatting.

Screenshot:

13. Mini Tool Power Data

Website: http://www.powerdatarecovery.com/

OS: Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8

Description:

Pretty good file recovery software. Supports several media types: SD, Smartmedia, Compact Flash, Memory Stick, HDD. It is used in a variety of cases of information loss: be it a virus attack, or erroneous formatting.

I am also glad that the program has a Russian interface and you can easily understand everything. After starting the utility, you are offered a choice of several wizards:

1. Restoring files after accidental deletion;

2. Recovery of damaged hard disk partitions, for example, an unreadable Raw partition;

3. Recovery of lost partitions (when you do not see at all that there are partitions on the hard disk);

4. Recovery of CD/DVD discs. By the way, a very useful thing, because. Not every program has this option.

Screenshot:

14. O&O Disk Recovery

Website: http://www.oo-software.com/

OS: Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP

Description:

O&O DiskRecovery is a very powerful utility for recovering information from many types of media. Most of the deleted files (if you didn't write any other information to the disk) can be recovered using the utility. Data can be reconstructed even if the hard disk has been formatted!

Using the program is very simple (besides, there is a Russian language). Once launched, the utility will prompt you to select the media to scan. The interface is made in such a style that even an unprepared user will feel quite confident, the wizard will guide him step by step and help restore lost information.

Screenshot:

Website: http://rlab.ru/tools/rsaver.html

OS: Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/Windows 7

Description:

Firstly, this is a free program (considering that there are only two free programs for data recovery, this is a weighty argument).

Secondly, full support for the Russian language.

Thirdly, it shows very good results. The program supports FAT and NTFS file systems. Can recover documents after formatting or accidental deletion. The interface is made in the style of "minimalism". Scanning is launched with just one button (the program will choose the algorithms and settings on its own).

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.piriform.com/recuva

OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8

Description:

A very simple program (also free), designed for an unprepared user. With it, step by step, you can recover many types of files from various media.

Recuva scans a disk (or flash drive) pretty quickly, and then gives out a list of files that can be recovered. By the way, files are marked with markers (well-readable, which means it's easy to recover; medium-readable - the chances are small, but there are; poorly-readable - there are few chances, but you can try).

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.reneelab.com/

OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8

Description:

A very simple program for data recovery. It is mainly intended for restoring photos, pictures, and some types of documents. At least, it shows itself in this better than many other programs of this kind.

Also in this utility there is one interesting feature - creating a disk image. It can be very useful, no one has canceled backup yet!

Screenshot:

18. Restorer Ultimate Pro Network

Website: http://www.restorer-ultimate.com/

OS: Windows: 2000/XP/ 2003/Vista/2008/ 7/8

Description:

This program dates back to the 2000s. At that time, the Restorer 2000 utility was popular, by the way, not bad at all. It was replaced by the Restorer Ultimate program. In my humble opinion, the program is one of the best for recovering lost information (plus support for the Russian language).

The professional version of the program supports RAID data recovery and reconstruction (regardless of the complexity level); it is possible to restore partitions that the system marks as Raw (unreadable).

By the way, with this program you can connect to the desktop of another computer and try to recover files on it!

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.r-tt.com/

OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7/8

Description:

R-Studio is probably the most famous program for recovering deleted information from disk/flash drives/memory cards and other media. The program works simply amazing, it is possible to recover even those files that you didn’t “dream” about before starting the program.

Opportunities:

1. Support for all Windows OS (except Macintosh, Linux and UNIX);

2. It is possible to recover data via the Internet;

3. Support for a huge number of file systems: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5 (created or modified in Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Win7), HFS/HFS (Macintosh), Little and Big Endian variants of UFS1/UFS2 (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD/Solaris) and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 FS (Linux);

4. Ability to restore RAID disk arrays;

5. Create disk images. By the way, such an image can be compressed and written to a USB flash drive or other hard drive.

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.ufsexplorer.com/download_pro.php

OS: Windows XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8 (full support for OS 32 and 64-bit).

Description:

Professional program designed for data recovery. Includes a huge set of wizards that will help in most cases:

Undelete - search and restore deleted files;

Raw recovery - search for lost hard disk partitions;

Recovery of RAID - arrays;

Functions for recovering files during a virus attack, formatting, repartitioning a hard drive, etc.

Screenshot:

Website: http://www.wondershare.com/

OS: Windows 8, 7

Description:

Wondershare Data Recovery is a very powerful program that will help you recover deleted, formatted files from your computer, external hard drive, mobile phone, camera, and other devices.

Pleased with the presence of the Russian language and convenient masters who will guide you step by step. After starting the program, you are given 4 masters to choose from:

1. File recovery;

2. Raw recovery;

3. Recovery of hard disk partitions;

4. Renewal.

See screenshot below.

Screenshot:

22. Zero Assumption Recovery

Website: http://www.z-a-recovery.com/

OS: Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7

Description:

This program differs from many others in that it supports long Russian filenames. This is very convenient when restoring (in other programs, you will see "kryakozabry" instead of Russian characters, as in this one).

The program supports file systems: FAT16/32 and NTFS (including NTFS5). Also noteworthy is support for long file names, support for multiple languages, the ability to restore RAID arrays.

Very interesting digital photo search mode. If you are recovering graphic files, be sure to try this program, its algorithms are simply amazing!

The program can work in case of virus attacks, incorrect formatting, erroneous deletion of files, etc. Recommended for those who rarely (or don't) back up files.

Screenshot:

That's all. In one of the following articles, I will supplement the article with the results of practical tests, which programs managed to recover information. Have a great weekend and don't forget to back up so you don't have to restore anything...

Hello.

Many experienced users, I think, have quite a few CD / DVD discs in their collection: with programs, music, films, etc. But CD discs have one drawback - they are easily scratched, sometimes even from careless loading into the drive tray ( I will keep silent about their small capacity today :)).

If we also take into account the fact that disks quite often (who works with them) have to be inserted and removed from the tray, then many of them quickly become covered with small scratches. And then the moment comes - when such a disk is not readable ... It's good if the information on the disk is distributed on the network and it can be downloaded, but if not? This is where the programs that I want to present in this article will be useful. And so, let's get started...

What to do if the CD / DVD disc is not readable - recommendations and tips

First I want to make a small digression and give some advice. A little lower in the article are those programs that I recommend using to read "bad" CDs.

If your disc is not readable in your drive, try inserting it into another drive (preferably one that can burn DVD-R, DVD-RW discs ( earlier, there were disk drives that could only read CDs, for example. More about this here: https://ru.wikipedia.org/)). I myself have one disc that completely refused to play in an old PC with a regular CD-Rom, but easily opened on another computer with a DVD-RW DL drive ( By the way, in this case, I recommend making a copy from such a disk).
It is possible that your information on the disk is of no value - for example, it could have been posted on a torrent tracker for a long time. In this case, it will be much easier to find this information there and download it than to try to repair the CD/DVD.
If there is dust on the disc, then gently blow it off. Small particles of dust can be gently wiped off with napkins ( computer stores have special ones for this business). After wiping, it is advisable to try again to read the information from the disk.
I should note one detail: it is much easier to recover a music file or a movie from a CD than any archive or program. The fact is that in a music file, if it is restored, if some piece of information is not read, there will simply be silence at that moment. If some section is not read in the program or archive, then you will not be able to open or run such a file ...
Some authors recommend freezing discs and then trying to read them. (arguing this by the fact that the disk heats up during operation, but when it cools down, there is a chance that in a few minutes (until it warms up) the information can be pulled out). I do not recommend doing this, at least until you have tried all the other methods.
And the last. If there was at least one case that the disk was unavailable ( unreadable error) - I recommend copying it completely and overwriting it on another disk. The first call is always the main one 🙂

Programs for copying files from damaged CD / DVD discs

1. Bad Copy Pro

BadCopy Pro is one of the leading programs in its niche that can be used to recover information from a variety of media: CD / DVD discs, flash cards, floppy drives (probably no one uses these anymore), USB drives and other devices.

The program is quite good at extracting data from damaged or formatted media. Works in all popular versions of Windows: XP, 7, 8, 10.

Some features of the program:

the whole process takes place completely automatically (especially important for novice users);
support for a bunch of formats and files for recovery: documents, archives, pictures, videos, etc.;
ability to recover damaged (scratched) CD/DVD discs;
support for different types of media: flash cards, CD / DVD, USB drives;
the ability to recover lost data after formatting and deletion, etc.

2. CDCheck

CDCheck- this utility is designed to prevent, detect and recover files from bad (scratched, damaged) CDs. With this utility you can scan and check your disks and determine which files have been corrupted on them.

With regular use of the utility - you can be calm about your disks, the program will inform you in time that the data from the disk needs to be transferred to another medium.

Despite the simple design (see Fig. 2), the utility does its job quite well. I recommend to use.

Rice. 2. Main window of CDCheck v.3.1.5

3. Dead Disc Doctor

This program allows you to copy information from unreadable and damaged CD / DVD discs, floppy drives, hard drives and other media. Lost chunks of data will be replaced with random data.

After starting the program, you are offered three options to choose from:

Copy files from damaged media;

Make a full copy of a damaged CD or DVD;

Copy all files from the media, and then burn them to a CD or DVD.

Despite the fact that the program has not been updated for a long time, I still recommend trying it if you have problems with CD / DVD discs.

4.File salvage

Website: https://www.softportal.com/software-5538-file-salvage.html

To give a short description, File Salvage is a program for copying broken and damaged disks. The program is very simple and not large in size (only about 200 KB). Does not need installation.

Officially works in Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP (unofficially tested on my PC - worked in Windows 7, 8, 10). As for the recovery - the indicators are very average, with "hopeless" disks - it is unlikely to help.

5.Non Stop Copy

Despite its small size, the utility very effectively recovers files from damaged and hard-to-read CD/DVD discs. Some highlights of the program:

can continue files not fully copied by other programs;
the copying process can be stopped and continued again after some time;
support for large files (including more than 4 GB);
the ability to automatically exit the program and turn off the PC after the copying process is completed;
Russian language support.

6Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier

In general, a very good utility for copying data from damaged and scratched disks, disks that refuse to be read by regular Windows tools, and disks that, when read, get errors.

Rice. 7. Super Copy 2.0 - the main window of the program.

Another small program for reading files from damaged disks. Those bytes that will not be read will be replaced ("clogged") with zeros. Useful when reading scratched CDs. If the disc is not badly damaged - then on the video file (for example) - there may be no flaws after recovery!

That's all for me. I hope at least one program will turn out to be the one that will save your data from the CD ...

Happy recovery 🙂

Free Disk Recovery Software designed specifically to help with the loss of digital information. Thanks to a variety of software, you can copy data from any format of unreadable laser discs without much effort and without additional investment. Often, the default settings of a desktop computer's optical drive are not enough for the system to read information found on unstable flexible devices such as CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. In this case, you can easily download disk recovery software for free .

CDCheck. CD Check 3.1.14.0 is intended for data recovery mainly on optical CDs.CDCheck can handle any of your damaged CDs and DVDs.

1.5MB

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

500KB

. File Salvage is a tiny 217 Kb program. Her scope of work includes emergency copying of data from a problematic optical drive to a PC hard drive.

200KB

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

126KB

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

3.5MB

. This is a professional tool for backing up data from unreadable CDs and DVDs.Sector-by-sector reading of the information written to the disk allows deaddiscdoctor to do its job perfectly.

1.7MB

. Diskinternals cd dvd recovery is a professional utility for recovering deleted files. The main working platform of this program are optical storage media formats DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD-R, CD-RW, etc.

7.4MB

. This is a small application that is capable of copying music from laser CDs to other disk devices.

6.1MB

. The CDRoller utility has extensive hardware capabilities for working with data from problematic old-style laser discs. With this program, you can recover various files from hard-to-read DVDs and CDs.

5.3MB

. Supercopy is a time-tested piece of software whose main task is to copy digital data from problematic disk devices.

223KB

. Unstoppable copier is an indispensable tool for data recovery from unstable data carriers. It is designed to create copies of digital files located on problematic disk drives.

390KB

. The compact software AnyReader is endowed with all the necessary powers to create copies of files from unstable digital data carriers.

3MB

. 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.

370KB

. 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 discs.

950KB

They brought a DVD from the kindergarten with a recording of the matinee. Which, as luck would have it, but why be surprised, almost immediately began to "stutter" in several places. It was Friday evening, so there was no one to swear and deal with. I really wanted to watch the matinee, but there was no desire to wait for Monday.
The topic of recovering scratched and/or unreadable discs is not new and has been relevant since their inception. But in the last three years, CDs and DVDs have gone almost completely out of use. The Internet and flash drives have done their job. Therefore, I had to practically rediscover the world of everything related to optical media.

So what do we have. DVD-R Printable with UDF file system that contains information in DVD-video format.
Which at certain time intervals "stutters" when playing on a DVD player and completely refuses to be copied through the computer's DVD drive. A cursory glance at the work surface showed several scratches. Which most likely led to such sad results.

Differences in the principles of reading a DVD player and a computer

The player must produce a picture stable in time. And so it "swallows" the failed sections. That is, if something is not readable, then the player moves on. Therefore, on "worn" discs, an unstable crumbling picture and disappearing sound are possible. It is believed that a short-term loss of image or sound quality is a lesser evil than a complete stop in the demonstration of a video clip. That is, you as a viewer will not lose the essence.
The computer reads the disk not as a stream of information, but absolutely to every byte. And the loss of any byte is critical for him and is considered an error. Which of course is true for programs and databases. But for images and sound it is not always possible in principle. After all, even if there is no sound in the film for a couple of seconds, you most likely will not notice anything. And if you notice, it is unlikely to spoil the overall viewing experience.

Mechanical and software method of information recovery

The mechanical method involves the impact on the media itself, that is, on the CD. As a rule, this is surface grinding to hide scratches and restore the correct laser reflection angle. I myself witnessed how a “stuttering” disk, after washing in warm water, began to work like new. I will not dwell on this method in detail, since I have never resorted to it, and I have nothing to advise. Let me just say that this method of restoring the health of disks is a temporary phenomenon. Therefore, immediately after grinding, you need to create a backup copy.
The software method is more suitable for recovering data from music and video discs. When 100% accuracy is not essential. And it is produced with the help of programs and utilities that read the disk using special algorithms, trying to extract the maximum information from it.
Ideally, both methods should be used. Software from the beginning. If it didn’t work out 100%, then mechanical and again software.

Programs for reading bad CDs

In this article, I will only talk about free solutions. Since for one damaged DVD it makes no sense to buy a paid program. And free solutions may be less convenient and less functional, but for a one-time recovery they bring the same result. Which is exactly what I need.

Recovery ToolBox for CD Free

Recovery Toolbox for CD Free (official site) is designed to recover data from damaged media of the most common types today: CD, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, etc. The program allows you to recover files of any type. The utility performs a full scan of damaged disks and saves as much information as possible. During the recovery process, Recovery Toolbox for CD Free uses a large number of different algorithms, which greatly improves the amount and quality of recovered data. And most importantly, the program is completely free!
Insert the CD and run the program Recovery Toolbox for CD Free and see the interface for housewives. Which is undoubtedly a plus, since everything is clear and understandable without words. First of all, select a drive with an unreadable disk.

Next, select a location on the computer's hard drive where we will copy data from the optical drive.

Now select the folders and files to be copied from the DVD. In my case, we select everything, since I need to copy the entire disk. Press the "Save" button...

And the copying process itself will begin, which can take a long time, up to several hours.

At the end of the utility in the destination folder on your hard drive, you will get the most out of what you managed to copy from the CD.

Non Stop Copy

Non-Stop Copy is a utility for copying files from any damaged media. The program allows you to copy damaged files from any media, and information from unreadable sectors is replaced by zero bytes. It also tries to read information from poorly readable sectors in several attempts.
The program does not use any low-level methods for reading information, and due to this it works correctly on any type of media and on any file systems supported by the operating system.
The latest version is dated 2006. But do not be afraid and look for something fresher. And now, in 2013, she is doing a great job with her tasks. The Non-Stop Copy utility was personally tested by me on a Lenovo laptop with Windows 7 Ultimate x32 operating system and showed excellent results.
You can download the program from the official website. There are also detailed instructions for its use. From the functionality of the interface, I noticed only one drawback, at a time you can copy only one file. But this misunderstanding is easily solved by a batch file, which the author provides as part of the program distribution kit. By the way, the program does not require installation and, accordingly, does not spoil the operating system.
We launch the program and select an unreadable file and the place where we will save it. Then we press the "Start" button.

At the beginning, the program performs a quick copy of the entire file, without stopping at problem areas. Approximately as we do a DVD player. The figure below clearly shows the unreadable data.

Then all the processing power of the program's algorithms is turned on to minimize the presence of red sectors. This process can take several hours and in the end you will get something like the following picture.

As you can see, instead of solid red fields, there are only single red dashes. That is, data loss is very small and quite acceptable when copying video data.
I would especially like to dwell on the program control buttons. During the copying process, two buttons become available to you: "Stop" and "Cancel". From their name, the functionality is not entirely clear. The "Stop" button completely stops the copying process, while saving all data on the state of the process at the time the copying was stopped. The final file after stop has the same size as the source file. It contains everything that has managed to be copied, and parts of the file that have not had time to copy or that could not be copied are replaced with null bytes.
The "Cancel" button completely cancels the copying process, and everything that has managed to be copied is deleted. In general, this button is provided in case you need to quickly stop the process and at the same time you are no longer interested in its result. For example, pressing the "Stop" button at the very beginning of copying a rather large file can lead to some delay in stopping, due to "overwriting" the uncopied part of the file with zero bytes. The "Cancel" button in this case will stop the process immediately.
That is, if you are tired of waiting, but you need the data, then click "Stop", and if you do not need it, then "Cancel". And the best part is, if you clicked "Stop", then later you can continue copying from the same place.

Results of data recovery programs

I must say right away that I liked the program more Non Stop Copy. The reason for this preference is the visibility of the data recovery process. For some reason, it's nice for the eye when you observe the process and see for yourself how much has been done, how much is left and what is happening now. Utility Non Stop Copy I recovered about 99% of the information, which turned out to be quite acceptable for me.
In the future, I converted the recovered DVD video into a familiar AVI file. But that's a completely different story.

In this article, I briefly described the steps that can help recover data in the most common cases of loss on CDs and DVDs.

So, suppose - you have recorded photos from your summer vacation in the Maldives on a DVD disc, put it on the shelf and after half a year / year you decide to refresh this wonderful event in your memory by reviewing the pictures with your friends. You insert the disc into the DVD-ROM, the light blinks, the disc picks up and slows down, but you can’t open its contents in the explorer. Or the contents are visible, but the necessary files cannot be copied.

What could have led to this situation, and what options are possible?

Zero option, nothing to do with the carrier

It could be the drive itself, the operating system, or viruses. DVD drives differ among themselves in the quality of optics and the capabilities of corrective algorithms. In addition, dust and dirt could settle on the lens, which prevents the disc from being read. Different drives may differ from each other in the range of supported rotation speeds, and the lower the rotation speed the drive is able to create when trying to read the TOC of a blank (disc table of contents recorded in the Lead-in area), the root directory and the data area, the higher the probability of successful correction of media reading errors .

Therefore, the first thing to try to do with an unreadable or poorly readable CD or DVD disc is to try to read it on another accessible computer or laptop. For the purity of the experiment, it is better not on 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 speed of the disc in the drive. It happens that the standard firmware does not handle this quite correctly, and manual speed control can improve unstable or poor disk reading. And not always the smallest rotation speed will be the best for reading - here you need to experiment with the values. In each 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, it is also the most common, surface contamination

Dirt, dust and fingerprints on the disc surface are easy to deal with. With a special damp cloth for cleaning office equipment, carefully remove dirt, paying attention not to scratch the coating. Then carefully wipe the disc with a dry cloth and you can insert it into the drive and try to read.

Wipe should be from the center to the edge, in no case in a circular motion. If suddenly a grain of sand gets under the napkin and scratches the disc, a radial scratch will do much less harm than a concentric one.

Do not use acetone, nail polish thinner, kerosene, gasoline, or other petroleum-based solvents. If you need to use some kind of solvent to remove dirt from the disc, it is better to use alcohol-based solvents.

Option two, scratches

This also includes various forms of thermal damage.

Two ways of classifying scratches come to mind:

By the integrity of the reflective layer:
1. The scratch did not affect the reflective coating, only the polycarbonate substrate was damaged.
2. The reflective coating is damaged.
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Width and Location:
1. Narrow scratches. Due to the redundancy of the stored information, and the use of various corrective algorithms by the drive, they are not very dangerous.
2. Wide scratches. In addition to more corrupted data, additional problems are added, for example, a drive in this place can “lose” a track and continue to read the next one. Successful reading in such cases depends largely on the perfection of the drive.
3. Concentric scratches are the worst type of damage. Not only that, in this case, corrective algorithms no longer help, because the entire sector is damaged, along with redundant information, so they still confuse the positioning system.
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Particularly severe damage is clearly visible through the light of the CD, as in this picture:

Scratches on the polycarbonate coating interfere with the drive laser beam reading data from the work surface, due to the fact that they introduce distortion into focus. 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 ways to polish. Starting from filling scratches with special pastes, with a refractive index close to that of polycarbonate, and ending with the removal or smoothing by heating the damaged top layer. The methods used in polishing lenses and other optics are quite applicable.

Polishing can be done by hand, or you can use homemade polishers made from a linear-powered electric razor, or use specialized tools that are available in a variety of e-bay.

The successful implementation of the above activities, in addition to the availability of special 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 disc, freezing it, warming it over a gas burner or an incandescent lamp. All methods are designed to melt polycarbonate so that 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, a crack on the disk

Cracks are of two types - going 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 disc 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 careless handling, but get worse, especially on poorly balanced discs.

To recover data from a media damaged in this way, first of all, it is necessary to take measures to prevent the crack from growing, which can lead to irreversible data loss and even to rupture of the disk in the drive. As a minimum, you should reduce the disk rotation speed to the minimum.

Methods for counteracting crack growth are similar to those used in auto glass repair. To begin with, the crack needs to be “drilled”. 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 disc through, but on both sides, inserting the needle into the plastic about half the thickness of the disc.

After that, it is desirable to glue the crack along the maximum length. To do this, you can slightly spread the edges of the crack, gently smear with a thin layer of superglue, in its minimum 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 even, without protrusions that can damage the optics of the drive.

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

According to GOST R 7.0.2-2006 for the conservation of documents on compact discs, each disc must be stored in a separate box at a temperature of 10-20 degrees Celsius, humidity 20-65% and diffused light without ultraviolet radiation. If you believe this regulatory document, then, adhering to the above rules, CDs will live happily ever after. However, the choice of blanks as the 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 from the ends should be varnished, unlike their low-quality counterparts. If the edge of the CD is not treated with varnish, over time moisture will get between the polycarbonate coating and the substrate, which will lead to oxidation of the layer that carries information, and data in such damaged places will be irretrievably lost.

The same effect can also occur if the protective coating of a CD or DVD has been severely damaged. Atmospheric moisture that has fallen on the substrate will corrode everything around the damage site in the same way.

Methods and approaches to data recovery in case of such damages also do not differ in originality, the same

Option five, write failure or unsuccessful attempt to write to RW disk

In this case, problems with reading user data are of a logical nature. It is difficult to give general recommendations, because failures caused by software errors or user actions lead to a wide variety of consequences. The most versatile method is to trick the drive's microprocessor.

If the error is related to attempts to add a session to multi-session media or an error writing 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 disk session and burn it to an ISO image. This feature 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, rewritable disc erased or overwritten

If the so-called quick erase was performed, an analogue of a quick format on a hard drive, when only the TOC - the file system of the disk is deleted, then the data can be recovered. Need with

If a quick erase was applied to the disk, and then new information was written to the top part, then only what was not overwritten can be restored. We remove a full dump of all available maximum capacity, then cut off the excess and restore according to the specified file headers in the rest.

If a hard erase has been applied to the drive, 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, has disappeared. The entire layer, after complete erasure, crystallizes and is ready for re-recording.

The last option, nothing is written on the disk at all

Oddly enough, data recovery specialists encounter this situation quite regularly. For example, many users, especially inexperienced ones, use not specialized software, but operating system tools (read Windows) to write information to DVD or CD discs. They select the necessary files and folders with the mouse, right-click on the item send to the drive, they see a window on which the files “fly” to their destination and calm down on this. In fact, after such an operation, the files are not copied to the 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, the recording will take place on the media.

Here, perhaps, are all the most common options for losing data on CDs and DVDs that users face. In conclusion, I want to once again advise the following - if the lost information is of high value, leave experiments until better times, entrust data recovery to professionals.

Zero application. Copy 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 uncorrected by the drive. The most useful of and programs are described in the respective appendices.
The disk is recognized by the drive, but an attempt to view the contents using OS means results in a hang or an error message. I am not aware of any free software that can effectively recover data in such situations, so refer to using
The drive is not recognized by the drive. The drive tries to read the disc at different speeds, the activity indicator flashes, after a number of unsuccessful attempts to read the table of contents at different speeds, the spindle stops. A preliminary removal of a sector-by-sector copy is required on a drive specially prepared for this. 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, one must resort to a "hot-swap" procedure for the disk, the so-called "hot-swap" method. The thing is that the drive really needs only three main TOC fields: the address of the output area of the disc (analogous to MAX LBA on the HDD), the start address of the first track (0 LBA) and the address of the next disc session (if a multisession disc was recorded). The start address for all disks is the same - 00:02:00 (which corresponds to the zero LBA address). Lead-Out depends on the size of the disc (typical CD is about 700 Mb, typical DVD is 4.4 Gb).

The trick is to take a blank disc of the same type and size, CD or DVD, and write one file to it for the entire logical volume - either a movie, or an image file (unpacked), or some kind of archive. Further, the case is prepared in a special way, the body is disassembled or the eject signal, the drive is blocked.

For a hot-swap CD operation, the drive must use the same type of donor disk 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 to the drive's RAM, you need to take a similar DVD-RW blank. If the disc is DVD + R, then the disc should not be a "backing track" or RW, but a "plus" one. The same applies to mini-discs, for "hot-swap" it is better not to use a full-size disk here.

The front panel is removed from the drive selected for the “hot-swap” operation, the screws holding the top cover are unscrewed. In general, all conditions are being 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.

Hot swappable compact drive

Hot-swappable drive

In the picture, the top cover of the drive contains a plastic clamping ring with a magnet, which must necessarily fix 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 we spin down programmatically and change the 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. With a large number of errors, the process can take quite a long time.

Some specialists use drives with modified firmware to recover data from disks that have problems with TOC, which 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 situations with a read error (read repetitions, skipping specified areas, etc.), which can significantly improve results on recovering information from disks containing multiple read errors.

Application two. Commercial programs for data recovery from DVD, CD discs

How to use ISOBuster

- a popular and rich utility for working with disk images and recovering 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, all kinds of UDF (UDF 2.01/UDF 1.02, UDF 1.5), Rock Ridge (Commodore), short and long filenames. To recover data from damaged media, the program has a valuable option - the ability to repeatedly reread bad sectors, which increases the chance to correctly subtract one or another problem sector.

The start window consists of two panels - on the left is the window for selecting images, sessions, disks and folders, and on the right is Explorer. After starting 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 advanced 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 a bad sector is found on the media during copying, the user is presented with a window prompting them to try to read this sector again or skip it. Re-reading of a bad sector sometimes turns out to be successful and its contents are read successfully.

When you start and finish scanning the contents of optical drives, the program displays in the drop-down menu all the available sessions that were recorded on the disc. In the event that a failure occurred 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 (as 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 match the original one, you can specify copying the range 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 medium being recovered is known in advance (Video CD, Audio CD). In this case, ISOBuster will filter out sectors that meet the selected criteria.

Further parsing of the image file and restoring data from it is carried out in the same way as working with an ordinary damaged CD. To do this, you must 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 understanding of the OS) and at the 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 components, or use the data recovery function using file signatures. Unlike hard drives, CDs and DVDs do not have fragmentation, which makes such recovery methods much more difficult.

Through the menu item Tools->Open Disk, the user gets to a window with options for choosing a physical or logical disk for work. If the drive did not recognize the presence of a disk in the tray (before the operation on ), then when you try to access the item in the list of logical disks, an error message "device is not ready" will be displayed,

and when you try to access a physical disk, the program will display an error message "there is no access to the device."

After correctly conducted, 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 available the options of cloning to a separate medium or to a file of the entire available surface or any section, selection of the initial sector for the source disk and for the destination disk (if copying is not performed to a file), selection of a filler pattern for unread sectors and the size of the jump when an unread is detected sectors (if there is a desire to speed up copying on a disk with numerous uncorrectable read errors).

In our case, you need to select copy to file and specify the path where to save it. We set zero as the initial sector, specifying some other number makes sense only if we can assume the number of unreadable sectors at the beginning of the disk. Having put all the necessary marks, you can start copying. The program saves the report on unread sectors in a separate log-file.

From the image obtained after subtraction, it is now necessary to restore the necessary data. To do this, you will have to use the so-called RAW Recovery function or file signature recovery. What does it mean? The vast majority of file types have unique character sequences, so-called. signatures that can 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 desired signature as a selection criterion, you can restore all files of one type or another (extension) from the resulting image.

File header using JPEG example

The following algorithm is used in the search process: the software finds the selected file header and saves the entire data array up to the next found similar header, considering that this is a single file, or the data array of the volume specified in the settings is saved from the found header (you can specify "with a margin") .

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) is 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.

Recovery in the WinHex program of files by titles 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 with a reminder that the data needs to be saved not where everything is being restored, but in another place (in the case of 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 offers 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 sector boundaries) and Search at cluster boundaries, if possible (search from cluster boundaries, if possible).

If files of rare types were recorded on the disk that are not described in the “Select file type (s)” reference book, 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, it remains only 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.

Application three. Free programs for data recovery from DVD, CD discs

- 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: from where to copy (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 the configuration issues in more detail, since the program contains fairly detailed reference information.

Separately, I want to draw attention to the fact that the utility has an EXTRA mode, which should start automatically when errors are detected when reading CD or DVD discs.

Recovery Toolbox for CD Free

Recovery Toolbox for CD Free is a utility from the well-known company Recovery Toolbox, which specializes in creating utilities for recovering data from damaged files of various types, from doc and xls to registry files and exotic databases. The only one of the free programs mentioned here that does not have a Russian interface. The copying algorithm is not configurable.

When you start the program, you are prompted to select the drive from which the recovery will be performed, as well as the path where you want to save the deducted. After reading the TOC, the utility prompts you to mark the necessary 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 on the work performed.

DeadDiscDoctor

DeadDiscDoctor– has a minimalistic interface with beautiful pictures. Uses the original copying algorithm, the settings of which cannot be changed. Choose what to copy, choose where to copy, start the process.

Non Stop Copy

Non Stop Copy- interface similar to DeadDiscDoctor. The downside is that there is no way to choose to copy more than one file at a time. There are minimal algorithm settings.

Reprinting or quoting is allowed, provided that the direct link to DVD CD data recovery is maintained on our website.