How to recover data from scratched CDs/DVDs

Scratched a DVD with some important files on it recently? One of my favorite TV shows ever is Lost. I find it to be interesting, but unfortunately, it also sucks up a lot of my hard drive space, with each episode at over 350mbs. I lose quite a bit of hard drive space due to this show, and that’s just that one show, not including other shows like Heroes or House. So, just like every other guy in this world, I burn the shows onto DVDs, as it’s a cheap and easily accessible way to store data. But the only problem with this is the fact that CDs or DVDs aren’t invulnerable to all types of damage, and in fact, even a small finger print or scratch can make a DVD/CD player not able to read the disk. The main reason why the players can’t read the disk is because the damaged part of the disk doesn’t contain any data. If you try to copy-and-paste the file on the damaged disk onto a computer, you usually get an error saying the file is corrupted, or damaged. So, after losing many disks, and spending many hours of re-burning, and re-burning, I finally put my foot down and looked for some methods to recover data from damaged CDs or DVDs. I found some totally weird methods involving toothpaste, banana skins, even candle wax, but I also found some really handy programs, which I thought I’d share with you all today. The way these programs work is by copying out the entire file, just skipping out on the damaged part, so it allows you to salvage the majority of the file. Method 1: Roadkil’s Unstoppable Copier


Roadkil’s Unstoppable Cleaner recovers files from any kind of damaged disk. It allows you to copy files from disks that give ‘corruption‘ errors, and those that are scratched. The program attempts to recover all the parts of the file that are still readable, and ignore the damaged parts. The program is tiny, and it needs no installation, so you can just jump straight in. Method 2: CD Recovery Toolbox


CD Recovery Toolbox supports a vast range of disks - CD, DVD, HD DVD, Blu Ray and so on. Basically, it recovers data off disks with physical damage (chipping, scratches) or some some sort of incorrect recording. So there you have it, a few good ways of recovering data that seemed forever lost on a damaged disk. Just remember that you’ll have a part of you file that will be missing, the part that was originally damaged, as these programs don’t repair the disk, but instead recover all other parts of the file. So, for example, if you’re watching a film, 2 minutes of the film might be skipped, due to the fact that the part skipped was damaged