Recovering files off a DVD-RW

Hey SC,

ScottishCaptain said:

My extremely simple question is this:

Can data be recovered from a fully erased DVD-RW in any way?

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The extremely simple answer to that would be: No

If you had done a quick erase there would be a chance to have recoverable data (still depending on software used to erase, as well as batch number of superdrive and firmware version), but for that you'd probably need special hardware equipment since you wouldn't be able to tell a superdrive where to look for the data on an quick erased DVD-RW. Chances might go up if the DVD-RW was treated as a DVD+RW during erasing - but as mentioned only for quick erase.

Problem with your full erase is that the drive erased the inner rings (where layout info is saved) as well as the data area. That means a recovery can neither guess where data was stored and even if you'd find tidbits of data you couldn't map it, because there is no layout indication. A highly specialized lab might be able to recover fractions of datastreams but this would be a highly complicated process you couldn't perform using standard hardware or software, you'd need tailored equipment. Even then recovery costs might be equal to a small car and you'd only get fragments (at best, probably not even this), not a full data-set.

If your data has been saved to a harddrive recently it would be more reasonable trying to recover the deleted data from said HDD.

Best regards,
Eric

^^This, but I think you CAN'T recover anything for the following reason.

The data gets burned into the disk with a laser, with a full erase this means every single bit gets erased.

I know it's too late to help now with the fully-erased DVD, but in the future I'd suggest you use some media OTHER THAN Memorex. It doesn't have a good reputation.

The only CD's I've _ever_ had problems with were Memorex. Just bad from the get-go.

I'd recommend Verbatim brand in the future. Always good results with them…

I'm guessing that bad media (rather than a bad SuperDrive) had something to do with your original problems...

Fishrrman said:

I know it's too late to help now with the fully-erased DVD, but in the future I'd suggest you use some media OTHER THAN Memorex. It doesn't have a good reputation.

The only CD's I've _ever_ had problems with were Memorex. Just bad from the get-go.

I'd recommend Verbatim brand in the future. Always good results with them…

I'm guessing that bad media (rather than a bad SuperDrive) had something to do with your original problems...

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Smarter still would be to have more than one backup, and not on optical media which is more prone to problems than other media.

"Smarter still would be to have more than one backup, and not on optical media which is more prone to problems than other media."

Have to agree with you there.

If one is going to use optical media, either CD or DVD, the best option is to use "non-rewritable" blanks (no "-RW"), and do at least two copies of each.

There's a new kind of optical media called "M-disc" that supposedly has a lifespan of 50-100 years, but I've never tried it and it doesn't seem to have caught on, since hard drive prices have come 'way down...

Hi.

Fishrrman said:

There's a new kind of optical media called "M-disc" that supposedly has a lifespan of 50-100 years, but I've never tried it and it doesn't seem to have caught on, since hard drive prices have come 'way down...

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M-Discs aren't that new and they will release M-Disc Blu-Ray this quarter (or already have done this, I'm not up to date on this). The theoretical lifespan of an M-Disk is ~1000 years, which is a tradeoff between lifespan and ease of manufacturing, because the data layer is attached to a polycarbonate-layer just as a normal DVD and polycarbonat will eventually degrade after about 900 - 1000 years.

I agree that it seems like M-Discs haven't caught on and only few people are using them. As you already said that might be because people do have more trust in (and access to cheap) harddrives and "cloud" storage. It is also worth mentioning that you need special drives to burn M-Discs (laser temp. > ~510 °C) and people aren't buying expensive hardware just to burn a few discs. Additionally businesses might rely on things like Syylex permanent storage and not M-Disc, because it's based on a higher standard, has higher OD, you don't have to buy equipment and permanent storage isn't prone to the write errors you know from DVD (which can also happen to M-Disc).

ScottishCaptain said:

or if I'm screwed (which I'm somewhat positive I am).

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If you want to try and recover your data from any harddrive which it might have resided on let me know if you need advice on any tools worth trying.

Best regards,
Eric