[HN Gopher] Resurrecting Scratched CDs and DVDs [video]
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       Resurrecting Scratched CDs and DVDs [video]
        
       Author : hggh
       Score  : 22 points
       Date   : 2021-05-01 13:39 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | aasasd wrote:
       | Once you can read something from the disk (especially pertinent
       | for HDDs), I recommend using `ddrescue`, at least on unixes
       | including MacOS. It will dump as much of the disk as it can, and
       | only then will repeatedly go over the unreadable sectors in hopes
       | of extracting something from them. This approach prevents
       | botching the whole disk by plowing the dead sectors while the
       | rest is still readable. And it can be enough for something like
       | photos and media where some lost kilobytes don't mean much.
        
         | pmoriarty wrote:
         | Not only will ddrescue do that, but if you re-record that
         | information on another CD or DVD, ddrescue can add extra error-
         | correction information that'll make it easier to recover your
         | data from that media in the future, if it ever gets damaged.
        
           | pronoiac wrote:
           | I think you're thinking of dvdisaster, whose site is defunct,
           | though it's been forked on GitHub. I'd suggest par2 instead,
           | as you can separate the recovery files from the media.
        
             | pmoriarty wrote:
             | You're right. I was thinking of dvdisaster. My mistake.
             | 
             | However, par2 is not a substitute for it, as without the
             | kind of ECC that dvdisaster puts on the CD/DVD, the files
             | on it might not even be readable, so the par2 files on it
             | would themselves be inaccessible, making them worthless.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | amelius wrote:
         | Does that work for dvds?
        
           | aasasd wrote:
           | I think it should work with anything that functions as a disk
           | device in the system. The program itself likely doesn't do
           | much guessing about sector sizes and such, and just uses
           | smaller and smaller read blocks where larger ones can't be
           | read.
           | 
           | It also doesn't know anything about file systems, simply
           | dumping the disk as an image. After that you work with the
           | image, mounting it, rummaging in it with data-restoring
           | tools, or writing to another disk. This minimizes the chance
           | that the original disk kicks the bucket while you're in the
           | middle of the restoration process, or at least the damage
           | from such misfortune.
        
       | sparrish wrote:
       | Every dad knows you gotta get a SkipDr cause those kids will
       | scratch the crap out of those Disney DVDs. That thing works like
       | magic and is fast and easy to use.
        
         | abfan1127 wrote:
         | I still have my skipDr and still use it to this day for DVDs we
         | still own!
        
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       (page generated 2021-05-04 23:02 UTC)