These are some quick tips and techniques to deal with unfinalized DVDs, damaged DVDs and CDs or DVDs with errors or corrupt data.
Before attacking the disc itself it is a good idea to check for other possible sources of trouble:
- Check to see your CD/DVD burner has the latest firmware by going to the manufacturers website.
- Check to see if the media (brand and type) are compatible with your CD/DVD burner/reader.
- Find out if the DVD player is able to successfully play other discs.
You can begin looking at the solutions following once you are certain the DVD or CD disc is the problem.
Scratched CD DVD Discs
A simple visual inspection of the surface of the disc will tell you straight away whether your problem is physical damage to the disc. You will probably need to handle any visible scratches on the surface of the disc first.
At this stage it is advisable to use quality DVD copying software to find out of the disc will simply copy rather than trying something else. DVD software of good quality will be able to read through a great many disc surface imperfections.
If that failed you could go out and buy a scratched disc repair machine to re-surface the disc. Or you could go out to the garage or your local hardware store!
Any neutral or clear car polish product is about all you will need. Turtlewax happens to be the one I use. Take a VERY soft cloth (NOT paper towel), apply a little polish to the surface of the disc and GENTLY (remember, it’s not a car!) buff the disc.
Use a straight motion from the hole in the middle of the disc towards the outside edge and keep doing this until you see the scratch begin to noticeably disappear. After that using the same action and some clean cloth polish the disc again.
Now using good DVD copying software, try to make another copy. If you are still unsuccessful repeat the process until you can be certain the problem is not coming from a damaged disc surface.
DVD Data Recovery
The easiest DVD recovery software to use is either Nero 9 or Isobuster. A simple search on Google or Yahoo will bring up the sites you need.
Put the problem disc in the DVD drive of your computer then:
Open Nero SmartStart and choose Nero Express. Choose the option to Copy an Entire Disc. Choose the damaged disc and let it run. You will very shortly know of it is going to work.
If that doesn’t work choose Nero Express again and at the bottom of the window choose to Save tracks. Once more let it begin the process and it will tell you quite fast if it is going to work.
If that fails go back to Nero SmartStart and open Nero Recode. Select Recode an Entire DVD to DVD. Make sure the size of the target disc is the same as the source disc and again let it run.
If that doesn’t work return to Nero SmartStart and select to open Nero RescueAgent and follow it’s DVD recovery software strategies.
Still unsuccessful: Isobuster.
See if you can make a disc image file and burn to a new DVD. Isobuster has three alternate methods of dealing with data corruption.
- It can substitute the corrupt data with no data at all.
- It can put fake data in place of the corrupted data.
- It can replace the corrupted data with a series of zeros.
Isobuster will not create the disc image file unless it knows it will be successful. If Isobuster has created the file (note where it was going to put it first!) after that you will need to re-name the file extension to .iso.
With any DVD burning software use the disc image file to burn a new DVD.
Still no luck?
- Start Isobuster and load the disc.
- When Isobuster has detected the disc run the “Find Missing Files and Folders” option under the “File” menu.
- You will be able to see in the left side column Files and Folders Found by Their Signature.
- Select that, then go to File – Files Found Via Their Signature – Extract Files Found Via Their Signature.” Choose a place to save and let it start.
The files will now be where you chose them to be saved.
Disc that are Unfinalized.
If possible get the original device used to create the disc to finalize it. If this is not possible or the original device is failing to successfully finalize the disc you may have to resort to the Isobuster routine above.
If you have a perfectly good disc that is simply unfinaized.
This requires Nero 9 and is suited to unfinalized discs only.
Put the disc into the DVD RW of your computer. Open Nero 9 StartSmart. Select Create and Edit at the top of the screen. Select Author, Edit and Capture Video.NeroVision will open. Select the Disc Tools menu and hit Finalize Disc. In the option box that appears choose No Menus and let it run. Hopefully you now have a fully finalized disc that is readable.
Hope this helps!