Extraction from bad DVDs

[cyberVera]

Guys, what program would you recommend to extract maximum from bad DVDs (scratched, etc.)?
Thanking you in advance.

[Mug Funky]

this is a difficult one.

there's only been one disc that i've struggled with, ripping wise. i basically set DVDDecrypter to file mode, copied all i could until it stopped, then tried the rest using SmartRipper (the only other ripper i have installed, and haven't used it for ages).

but this probably did nothing - if your drive can't read the data, software won't be able to. the best you can do is just copy out what you can.

[trolltuning]

I had one DVD that would play in a set top but not in my computer. However i WAS ABLE TO GO TO CMD.EXE and XCOPY it to my hard drive.

[cyberVera]

Thank you for your help.
Some additional info.
From time to time I have to extract vob files from partially damaged DVDs. While copying, my dvd drive comes to a scratch and ejects the tray, although only a small part of a file is damaged (sometimes even less than a millisecond).
DVD Decryptor is good for decryption but not for thorough extraction.
My first program for that was Skopin FileCopier. Pretty good progy but too thorough :-) and it most times does not prevent the tray from being ejected as it comes to bad sector.
Then I tried BadCopy Pro. But it is not freeware, and I assume their should be many free alternatives to it.
The last one I tried was CDCheck. Pretty good, but... When it comes to bad sector it ejects the tray and continue(!) to extract, without response from mouse. Btw, the same happens with BadCopy Pro.

Any other programs you happened to discover?

[smiller667]

CloneDVD maybe? CloneCD was pretty good at retrying for CDs. Seriously, it would be better to simply try a different drive, the reading capabilities can be very different. I once tried a scratched disc on three different drives (Toshiba, Liteon & a Toshiba slimline drive), surprisingly the laptop drive was by far the best, ymwv.

I don't think it is a software problem in your case, DVDdecrypter has been fine for me. I personally never experienced a drive which ejects an unreadable disc, btw. ... which brand is that?

Steve

[zilog jones]

IsoBuster might be of some use, but I've never tried it with scratched discs.

Also, have you attempted repairing the scratch? I haven't tried that myself either, but I've heard some crazy stuff, from using nail varnish to... toothpaste...

[jon.schaffer]

I once get a solution to the same problem by using vStrip (version 0.8f). A bit odd to use, and probably a bit old too, but you can start a rip at a very precise position. So, you can find at what position the DVD is damaged and the software hangs and then you can start a second rip process one second (or less ?) later.

If you have the opportunity to use another DVD drive... it may help. Some are better than others...

[Angelus]

Not sure if this is right or if it will work but I had a DVD that failed to read and I used some toothpaste and gently rubbed the scratches...rinsed it off and tried it again and it read it.

[cyberVera]

... which brand is that?

Hitachi.
The same with my another one by Mitsumi, and the third by Toshiba.
It is definitly due to physical damage :-(

[theReal]

Usually DVD Decrypter reads bad sectors over and over again until the drive delivers good data (or, if the drive doesn't, then it will skip the sector after a certain number of times).
If the drive just ejects when there's a bad sector, then it must be the drive's fault.

If you have to deal with scratched DVDs very often I guess a new DVD drive/burner might be a good idea. I had an old Pioneer DVD drive before I got my Pioneer A06 burner and it was so much more picky about scratched discs. With the A06 I have never had any DVD or CD that made any problems, not even scratched ones. I guess newer burners are even better than the A06 in that respect (the lasers and focus mechanisms must be getting better for higher burn speeds)

[cyberVera]

@theReal

Thank you for your help.

then it will skip the sector after a certain number of times

Any idea what this "certain number" is? In my last case, after 25 retries I stopped the process.

If the drive just ejects when there's a bad sector, then it must be the drive's fault

Or Windows fault :-) I use 98SE, even om my modern machines. (Doom9 says Win98 should be avoided, and WinXP is the only OS which should be used. And he is very emotional in that. There must be some really bad experience, if he hates it so much. With all my sympathy to his contribution into video encoding, his relationship with OS is the same of that Sony has to software development :-)

When you copy files from a floppy or CD or DVD to HDD within Windows Explorer, drive's tray never ejects at scratch. It just says "cannot be accessed". The same with DVD Decrypter - it continues to retry. But most data retrieval programs do that, showing blue screen of death (I agree that this one is pure Win9x feature). So, it is not necessarily drive's fault.

newer burners are even better

Most definitely your are right.
Actually, my Hitachi is two weeks old only.
I'm looking into getting one by Plextor. NEC is weak. Modern Teac by China is very faulty :-( we even stopped to sell it (I own a pc shop, its just real statistics).

@ Angelus and @ zilog jones

Toothpaste? :-) Good idea! I'll try that as soon as my wife leaves in a couple of days for the Egypt for vacation. Otherwise, she will give a call to a psychiatrist :-) But frankly speaking, from time to time when I get a dirty DVD I just use the inner side of my shirt to rub the surface :-) In most cases it helps! When it was the book era of information, I noticed there were some people who took books from me to read and were returning them back with proofs they were eating on them. Now people take my laser discs and returned them with fingerprints and scratches. i call them vandals. There always will be such people. Sad but true :-(

Back to software. Any other info regarding smart data retrieving programs which extract maximum from partially damaged DVDs, filling unreadable sectors with zeros?

[theReal]

Any idea what this "certain number" is? In my last case, after 25 retries I stopped the process.

Go to "settings->device->set hardware read error retries" and pick any number you like :)

[cyberVera]

No more problems!
DVD Decrypter did it all!

In I/O settings tab there's an option to ignore errors, I set retries to 1 and 1. In 15 minutes a file was ripped with only 50KB skipped (I even couldn't notice that gap while watching that place in the file) without DVD-ROM tray being ejected.

You can not even imagine how grateful I am to DVD Decrypter for saving my nerves and toothpaste :-)

Actually, before starting this thread, I tried to search the forum for this issue with criteria "scratch", "extraction", etc. - thousands of links. After your replies I tried "retries" and got everything in DVD Decrypter part of the forum.

Thank you all for your help!

[ukb008]

I use DVDDecrypter for not-too-big errors, and my settings are always

Software Read Error Retries 0,
Software Write Error Retries 0,
Ignore Read Errors.

Errors reaching up to MBs can give rise to Subtitle asynch.

Regards.