Any way to do this?

I've been trying to recover a damaged DVD (it is the only copy of some vacation pics...don't ask how the originals were deleted...stupid mistake), and I'm not having much luck. I have a(nother) utility that might do the trick (and I've used it before), but I think it will only work if it thinks the DVD is a hard drive. Is there anyway to force XP to sub a DVD drive into a folder or partition (thus making that folder seem as if it is 4.37GB)?

 

I don't know if this works for you. But I have done it and it works.

Required:
1) Polishing Cloth - You can buy these in music (hardware) stores.
2) Toothpaste (original, plain) - I used Colgate original (white original, none of the whitening etc.)

You might need:
1600Grit sandpaper + sandblock
Metal polish (brasso)

Directions:
Rinse the DVD in cold water, and clean existing things dirt etc. with your FINGER.

Depending on the severeness of the scratch:
Use 1600grit sandpaper to resmooth the DVD. You'd want to attach the sandpaper onto a sanding block to keep it leveled and balanced. Then apply a TINY amount of toothpaste onto DVD the gently polish the scratches out. Then rinse the the DVD again, dry it off. Now try it in the player, if it doesn't work, you'd have to repeat the same thing but with an actual polish such as brasso. Once it works, I'd have to recommend ripping the disc into an ISO and then reburning it.

Not sure if this was the kind of solution you were looking for.. But it does save discs! If you don't think my explaination is detailed enough there are more detailed ones if you searched google. Just look up 'DVD repair with toothpaste' or something like that. Its relatively cheap.

 

I dont know of any way to do what your asking, however I have used this program ( BadCopy Pro ) on some really scratched CD/DVDs and this program works great!
The program is only $39.50 but it does have a trial version.

 

Yikes...sounds risky.

It isn't just a scratch or two that bothers me (though there are a small number of them). It appears that the MFT (Master File Table) on the DVD is corrupt (and cannot be fixed). My recovery utility ignores the MFT and probably has the best chance of recovery through software.

Heck, that program once recovered 3.5GB of my personal data from a drive I accidentally formatted.

Oh...I'll give that BadCopy a chance...so far DVD Data Rescue isn't working for me.

EDIT: I know that the NTFS file system has a way to make a folder point to an entirely different partition, so I'm hoping this would be possible with a DVD. So far my attempts have failed to do so.

 

Oh oops, yeah I thought by damaged you meant scratched. Yeah my method definitely would not fix something like that.

 

Did you burn the DVD with your computer? Who burned it? Many drive burning utilities do a "temporary" burn that's not finalized, so it can only be read by their software. The software that lets you just drag files over to the DVD and such. Anyway, check into that. If you haven't finalized the DVD, it won't be readable on computers that don't have the same software installed until it's been finalized in the burning computer.

 

I know VLC player supposedly has the ability to play some incomplete or corrupted files. Maybe that's worth a try.

~ Brett

 

I've had pretty good results recovering dodgy discs using IsoBuster. Full version is $25.95, but there's a trial version that may also do the trick.

 

I usally burn dvd to iso image on my PC, then try to open it using Daemon tools.

It works most of the time when I have a problem using a CD/DVD.

There is a ton of programs that might also fix your problem, but I never tried them and most cost money.