How to store/archive rips on HDD?

[MikeTR]

Untill now I've allways ripped & stored my DVD's in file/folder format (VOB's). In copying several rips to a new HDD I encountered CRC errors. The original rip is still OK, but the file on the new disk is corrupt. My best guess is bad blocks on the HDD, but I'm not sure. Most annoying is that Windows copies the files without any warning, the CRC error only becomes noticable when accesing the files (playing, burning or editing).

To prevent CRC (or other errors) what is the safer way of storing DVD's on a HDD, as VOB's or as ISO? Basically I'd like to safeguard against errors occuring over time (or when moving files to another disk) while still enabling direct acces to the contents of the DVD.

[SeeMoreDigital]

I use DVDFabDecrypter to back-up my DVD's to "movie only" .ISO files. Which seem more stable, especially when moving between HDD's.

You can use DVDFabDecrypter or ImgBurn to convert your existing .BUP, .IFO, .VOB files to .ISO files ;)

[Doom9]

Hmm... bad sectors should normally be taken care off by the drive firmware automatically. Did you run a disk check on both discs? Does it come up clean or are there any errors? If they're clean, it's more likely an error that occured during transfer... flipped bits happen - that's why certain download tools automatically perform CRC checks after transfer to ensure everything is okay.
I don't know of an automated solution, but there are checksum tools (SFV, md2sums, sha1sum, etc.)... store a checksum file for every ripped disc, then run the checksum again when you copy the files.
While that cannot protect you from discs breaking down, at least you can verify that the content has been properly copied.

[MikeTR]

Both drives checked out clean, so it would appear to be a transfer error. Strange thing is that it s reproducable (occurs every time I copy the same files to the same disk). I'll try copying another dvd to the offending disk to seen what happens. The only 'automated' solution I've come across is CDCheck. It can scan folders/disks (both with&without checksum filepresent).

[Ghitulescu]

Don't blame the HDD alone :)
Have you thought of broken drivers or incompatibilities? A famous bug some years ago was the incompatibility of CloneCd with any busmaster driver other than Microsofts' own one (despite the Intel one was much better). Other known bugs are nVidia with some Via mainboards, just look in internet.

[NanoBot]

Another solution to prevent errors while copying files from one HDD to another is "Teracopy":

http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php

It is able to copy one or more files as a batch and if configured to do so, it will do a CRC check on the files after the copy operation. The "Free for home user" version is sufficient for our needs.

I am using 2.04 beta atm, and for the moment, I will not update to beta 2.05 or 2.06, since there are some reports about issues concerning the speed of never versions.

C.U. NanoBot

[CWR03]

I had a very similar problem once, turned out to be a bad HDD ribbon cable.

[MikeTR]

Copying the same files to a third disk works fine (no corruption). Since this is the first time it's happened, I'd think the drivers/cables shoud be fine. I'll change the cable to be sure.
@NanoBot :thanks: be sure to try it out. Too bad M$ didn't implement such a checking feature in WinXP itself.

[880]

I store PAR2 files alongside my rips. As long the rips aren't corrupted too badly, I can verify and repair them.