I'm looking for a utillity that will recover data from burnt CDs that
have been physically damaged eg. a scratch on the out edge prevents
contents from being displayed in Windows Explore (freezes) yet I know
there's file towards the centre in tact that I can use.
Any ideas?
well this isn't quite freeware, and I know it may sound weird, but I've
fixed many a scratched cd this way:
get a large diameter nut and bolt (try to get as close the size of the
hole in the center of the cd as you can) with a couple large fender washers
and put the cd between the washers and tighten the nut and bolt through the
centre hole - FINGER TIGHT only - then put the end of the bolt into a drill
and you can then spin the cd and use a VERY soft cloth to buff the scratch
out. Don't press too hard or you can snap the cd.
I'd recommend trying it on an old crap cd first. If you've got some cd
anti-skip compound - basically its like a turtle wax for cds - you can also
use that to help. The slight heat generated by friction is often enough to
soften the surface just enough to buff the scratch out to make it readable
at a slow speed setting like 1x using burner software.
I know it sounds weird, but don't laugh - it really has saved my butt on a
few occassions. But definitely practice first on an old AOL cd or
something.
As to software, CDCheck might help. It has a "Recover" button you click on.
Here's the URL:
http://www.elpros.si/CDCheck/
Of course the catch is that you need to be able to access the file system
(directory) without windows freezing. So try the buffing thing first.
HTH.
