[OT] - Recovery of data from DVD-R

[Charlie Farinella]

----- "Dan Jenkins" <dan at rastech.com> wrote:

> May be Linux related, if anyone can suggest Linux tools to use. :-)
> 
> A friend has a DVD-R which contains sentimental documents from her 
> mother & father who passed away recently. The DVD is unreadable. The 
> DVD-R was burned April 2008 and was stored since then in a bubble-wrap
> 
> envelope and, by the appearance, squeezed under a pile or between
> books. 
> The surface of the DVD has an imprint of the bubble wrap on the
> surface, 
> which several cleaning passes (DVD cleaner & alcohol with a microfiber
> 
> cloth from a DVD cleaning kit) did not completely remove. The disk 
> simply fails to read anything.
> 
> Any suggestions? Including data recovery services who might be able to
> help.
> Thanks.

Did you try copy the disk?  

dd if=/dev/dvd of=/somethingelse

This has *sometimes* worked for me with unreadable or damaged media.

good luck.

-- 
Charles Farinella
Appropriate Solutions, Inc.
603.924.6079