Corrupted CD

[D.Kit]

Hi All,

 

I have a backup CD-RW that contains about 400 megs of pictures, word, excel, and powerpoint files. I dragged and dropped with Roxio 7 Drag-To-Disc. The files worked fine for two months until I added several new files yesterday. Now the CD is corrupt.

 

The Roxio Scan-recovery program locks up at the last step of copying the files from the CD to my C: drive.

 

Any suggestions, guys?

 

D.Kit.

[Beerman]

Hi All,

 

I have a backup CD-RW that contains about 400 megs of pictures, word, excel, and powerpoint files. I dragged and dropped with Roxio 7 Drag-To-Disc. The files worked fine for two months until I added several new files yesterday. Now the CD is corrupt.

 

The Roxio Scan-recovery program locks up at the last step of copying the files from the CD to my C: drive.

 

Any suggestions, guys?

 

D.Kit.

I don't use D2D and many others don't for reasons such as what you mentioned......just not worth it to me.

Since I'm not a packet app user, I'm not sure what can be done with EMC (if anything) but you may want to give CDRoller at try.

[grandpabruce]

You can also try ISO Buster, but it, and CD Roller are not free. From now on, use Creator Classic and a CD-R. They cost about $0.15 each.

[lynn98109]

You have made the classic mistake I call "Basic False Analogy" - that since you format the floppy before using the floppy, therefore you format an optical disc (CD, DVD) and then use it. However, unlike magnetic media, optical media uses small depressions (pits) and flat places (lands) in the recording layer, for the equivalent of 0's and 1's.

 

And RW media is erasable because the recording layer isn't stable. If not erased, it will tend to flatten out (and become unreadable) on its own over time.

 

So you have the classic result. Bruce and Paul have given the two standard answers. However, there is more detail here -

http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=12382

 

If its any consolation, I managed to learn the hard way, despite being warned by my software guru.

 

Let us know how it goes.

 

Lynn

[D.Kit]

Thanks, folks.

 

CD Roller seems to work for me. I paid for it and have already recovered about 95% of files. Got a valuable lesson... Will migrate to "R" discs and use "Session at once" software

 

Thanks again.

 

D.Kit.

[lynn98109]

Thanks, folks.

 

CD Roller seems to work for me. I paid for it and have already recovered about 95% of files. Got a valuable lesson... Will migrate to "R" discs and use "Session at once" software

 

Thanks again.

 

D.Kit.

Congratulations, and thanks for letting us know.

 

(The saddest ones are those who have nearly filled a DVD/RW with small files when it blanks out )

 

Lynn

[d_deweywright]

Thanks, folks.

 

CD Roller seems to work for me. I paid for it and have already recovered about 95% of files. Got a valuable lesson... Will migrate to "R" discs and use "Session at once" software

 

Thanks again.

 

D.Kit.

Technically, it's just writing "sessions" or multi-sessions. Session-At-Once is a specific term for writing multiple tracks (not files) without turning off the laser, like Disc-At-Once, but without closing the disc. That option appears to have been dropped from EMC since around EMC 7, unless I just haven't found it.

[Richard Fdisk.exe]

Technically, it's just writing "sessions" or multi-sessions. Session-At-Once is a specific term for writing multiple tracks (not files) without turning off the laser, like Disc-At-Once, but without closing the disc. That option appears to have been dropped from EMC since around EMC 7, unless I just haven't found it.

 

 

we've got the stripped down EMC "Roxio Creator LE Dell Edition" and the settings can be chosen by clicking on the Wrench icon at the bottom right corner;

it brings up the "Options Menu"

under the section titled "Data"

in there you can choose;

1) "I would like to use discs for more than one recording..." ► leaves the disc open for more sessions

2) "I only need to use discs for one recording..." ► closes and locks the disc

(RW can be erased and used over but still remains locked until it's erased).

[d_deweywright]

we've got the stripped down EMC "Roxio Creator LE Dell Edition" and the settings can be chosen by clicking on the Wrench icon at the bottom right corner;

it brings up the "Options Menu"

under the section titled "Data"

in there you can choose;

1) "I would like to use discs for more than one recording..." ► leaves the disc open for more sessions

2) "I only need to use discs for one recording..." ► closes and locks the disc

(RW can be erased and used over but still remains locked until it's erased).

Right, but there's a difference between Track-At-Once multi-session writing, which EMC 9 does allow, and writing Session-At-Once, which is done for Audio CDs, or CD-Extra discs, where you have multiple Audio Tracks written without turning off the laser, and then a Data Track written after the Audio tracks.

[D.Kit]

Technically, it's just writing "sessions" or multi-sessions. Session-At-Once is a specific term for writing multiple tracks (not files) without turning off the laser, like Disc-At-Once, but without closing the disc. That option appears to have been dropped from EMC since around EMC 7, unless I just haven't found it.

 

I've just found a new version of CDRoller (v.7) has a portable burn and erase options.

It looks like a solution for my current (backup) tasks. Will try...

 

Thanks,

 

D.Kit

[d_deweywright]

I've just found a new version of CDRoller (v.7) has a portable burn and erase options.

It looks like a solution for my current (backup) tasks. Will try...

 

Thanks,

 

D.Kit

You seem to have missed the point above, that there is a very reliable way of writing files to CD-R using Easy Media Creator, which allows you to write to the disc multiple times, adding files each time. Simply use Creator Classic, add the files you want, and when you go to burn the disc, uncheck the box that says "Read Only". This will leave the disc (not the session) open and available for adding more files. Writing files to disc this way is very reliable and safe for backup storage. Anything that says "erase" implies using CD-RW (erasable) media, which is not considered by most to be a safe way to store information for long term storage.

 

Hope that helps!

[lynn98109]

I would go further and say RW media is an excellent way to permantly LOSE information.

 

You might find some interesting info in this:

http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=12382

 

It applies to ALL RW media, all R media, and ALL Packet-Writing programs (Drag2Disc, Nero's InCD, Sonic's DLA, etc)

 

Lynn

[Brendon]

I would concur with Dave, that RW media are not considered by most to be safe for long-term storage. When used carefully they are perfectly fine for short-term work.

 

I think Lynn takes her aversion to packet-writing software and rewriteable media much further than the evidence will support.

[lynn98109]

I was confident I had a "great-big floppy-disc", and even had some authoritative sources to back me up - I don't know if the Dummies books have changed since, but the one(s) I had said a formatted CD-RW was like a "great-big floppy-disc". My software guru tried to warn me, but I managed to learn the hard way.

 

That's why I try to pass the info along.

 

BTW - I remember someone who bought cdroller, and assumed he could continue to use his CD-RW with cdroller and was extremely upset when cdroller could no longer retrieve the files. If you get to the point you are using a recovery program, it's time to re-record - using R media (is your media worth as much as th cost of a new disc?) and a Sessions-based program like Classic Creator (or the older DataProject), or the built-in Windows burning.

 

Lynn

[Brendon]

"One swallow doth not a summer make." The evidence of one personal calamity or even several, can't be used to totally condemn the technology.

 

That's faulty logic, and is even worse when it is repeated endlessly whenever RW or packet writing are mentioned.

[TOTG]

I think Lynn has an aversion to assumptions made with the technology, not the technology itself. If you aren't careful, Packet Writing software will screw you over. However, it has its uses, such as convenience.

 

An interesting experiment; a couple of friends and I tried to force D2D to corrupt a Disc. One friend unplugged his computer half-way through the burn. None of us actually managed to get a corrupted disc in the end.

 

In general, I don't believe that you should only have one backup of important data. This is where most problems lie. If you only have one copy of it, then murphy's law is going to kick in, no matter what you have it written to.

[lynn98109]

If you make the backup with Packet-Writing, assuming you have a long-term backup, and set it aside for a few months -that's when it is likely to get you.

 

And I can speak from experience.

 

Lynn

[james_hardin]

I think Lynn has an aversion to assumptions made with the technology, not the technology itself. If you aren't careful, Packet Writing software will screw you over. However, it has its uses, such as convenience.

 

An interesting experiment; a couple of friends and I tried to force D2D to corrupt a Disc. One friend unplugged his computer half-way through the burn. None of us actually managed to get a corrupted disc in the end.

 

In general, I don't believe that you should only have one backup of important data. This is where most problems lie. If you only have one copy of it, then murphy's law is going to kick in, no matter what you have it written to.

I don't think you & friends tried too hard… Use V9 and it will bite you very quickly! My Results

[TOTG]

We didn't do as extensive testing as you did, just a few small things that we thought might screw up the writing process. Also, I think we used V8, and R media, and we didn't store them for very long (about 10-15 seconds ) I'm not sure what media we used either, though that definetly can play into it.

But anyways, I think this has gotten off topic now, so I'm not going to post any more in this thread after this. PM me if necessary (Probably shouldn't be, but eh, thats your call)

[D.Kit]

I have just tried to read some files from old backup on my friend's computer. CD-RW was burnt by Drag-To-Disc. When opening the text file, i get "This file is compressed and intended for use with Adaptec DirectCD 3.0 or later" with a lot of garbage symbols below, instead of normal text. It seems that D2D made

CD-RW inaccessible for another computer. Why???

 

Thanks,

 

D.Kit.

 

P.S. Fortunately, CDRoller seems to be able to retrieve all files off this "compressed" disc.

[d_deweywright]

I have just tried to read some files from old backup on my friend's computer. CD-RW was burnt by Drag-To-Disc. When opening the text file, i get "This file is compressed and intended for use with Adaptec DirectCD 3.0 or later" with a lot of garbage symbols below, instead of normal text. It seems that D2D made

CD-RW inaccessible for another computer. Why???

 

Thanks,

 

D.Kit.

 

P.S. Fortunately, CDRoller seems to be able to retrieve all files off this "compressed" disc.

Actually, it made the disc inaccessible for PCs not running Direct CD... a slight difference from what you said. The problem is that the disc was written with compression turned on. XP has the built-in drivers for reading some packet-written discs, but not the decompressing scheme that Direct CD can use. If the disc had been written without the compression enabled, there's a fair chance it would've been readable.

 

Glad to hear CDRoller was able to read the files. I didn't realize it had the ability to uncompress DCDs compression scheme.

[lynn98109]

There's also the possibility the RW disc is starting to go. It's only a question of time. Formatting a RW disc for Packet-Writing does seem to hasten the process, tho.

 

Lynn