How To verify a burned disc

[bovenstine]

Is there software that will verify a burned disc? i want to use a drive other than the one i use to burn to verify the disc. I seem to be having a problem with .bup files, as they don't seem to be burning correctly, but most other stuff is. Is there anything that lets me select a slew of files to be verified, not just by a directory?

[blutach]

If you burn with DVD Decrypter, it has a verify option. It cycles the drive before verifying.

Alternatively, you can take the disk out, pop it in another drive and verify through a dos window (start - run - cmd).

As well, look here (http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47762) for further quality testing you can do.

Regards

[bovenstine]

thakns, i had the nero tool installed and i didn't even know it was there. thanks for your help!

[fewtch]

Originally posted by blutach
As well, look here (http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47762) for further quality testing you can do.

Regards
I don't agree with all that's said on the digital-digest.com thread. For example, with CD/DVD speed ScanDisc function:

"Now, if your disk is OK, there will be 2 things: 1. The boxes will all be green and the readout will say 100% good; and 2. The results of the file test (in the output dialogue) will say Errors: 0 (you will need to scroll up to see this). Anything else, and you got a bad burn and you will need to try again."

Isn't this both drive and read-speed dependent? A drive could be reporting "damaged" sectors at 8x (or any very fast) read speed that will play fine on a 1x DVD player. Or a drive might be having trouble reading a burn made with a particular burner, that won't be a problem with most other drives.

Another thing I've noticed with some combos of brands/drives: The last disc sector is always colored red, i.e. 'unreadable'. It doesn't affect anything and all file(s) on the disc are readable.

So I don't agree with the assessment on the above mentioned page. Not only that, but I think people will be wasting discs if they re-burn because of a few recoverable errors at high read speeds -- it's not a good thing to be recommending.

[spuddog]

I have 3 dvd read capable drives. using nero cd-dvd speed I can get quite different results testing the same disk. so it must depend upon how well the drive reads the disk, not neccesarily how well the disk is burned

[fewtch]

Originally posted by spuddog
I have 3 dvd read capable drives. using nero cd-dvd speed I can get quite different results testing the same disk. so it must depend upon how well the drive reads the disk, not neccesarily how well the disk is burned
Yep, the program depends completely on what the drive reports. So it's not exactly a measure of readability in the same way a hard drive "scandisk" type program would be.

There's that small matter of read speeds too... CD/DVD drives slow down when dealing with minor errors and generally have no problem with them -- certainly not a reason for reburning, particularly given the fact that DVD video players don't read at those high speeds.

P.S. to the original poster... there are numerous programs (other than Nero) that can do binary compares between files and/or folders... check out Nonags, Google, etc.

[theReal]

Now, if your disk is OK, there will be 2 things: 1. The boxes will all be green and the readout will say 100% good;
Yeah well - since I got my Pioneer DVR-106 I haven't encountered a single disc that tested other than 100% green but with my Plextor CD burner I always got some yellow sectors at the end of CDRs (and the same CDRs now show 100% green)

there are numerous programs (other than Nero) that can do binary compares between files and/or folders... One of them would be "fc.exe" (a classic Windows command line tool)

[spuddog]

ok today i did a test with dvdinfo pro speedtest and nero speed test
I used the same disk and the same drive. the nero test was good but the dvdinf test was very bad. Question is if the each test is reliable, which should one believe, and if they are not accurate why bother

[blutach]

Interesting thread.

@fewtch - When the FAQ was written, it was envisaged that the disc would be read on the same drive that wrote it and would therefore be compatible. I know mine are. I write at 4x and read at CAV 4 rising to 8.

And, yes I agree, the player at 1x is the ultimate test. As well, of course, there is very good error correction on DVDs.

However, I guess if a burn is not real good, it would tend not to have just a single bad sector at the end - the bad sectors would perhaps be scattered at the end (and sometimes, in a real bad situation, all over).

Yes, I sometimes use fc/b as well. It works, that's for sure.

For what it's worth, my burn strategy - and it has not failed me to date - is to use PgcEdit as a front end to DVD Decrypter/mkisofs (with verify on) and then do a test as described in the DD thread.

Regards