Korean Job Discussion Forums

sojourner1

I had DVD data disks burned in Thailand, but can not read them. Not even with ISO buster and other recovery programs. I am wondering if my non-Thai computer is simply struggling (and failing) to read these disks as it did take many hours to recover the ones that did read.

I was traveling in SE Asia during the 1st 3 months of this year and had all my pictures and video burned onto PRINCO DVD's in internet cafes such as are common in tourist areas of Thailand, but can't read one 4GB memory card fill that I had made 2 DVD copies of as I did with the others.

How do I go about recovering the files on the disk?

Could the DVD drives be different than those sold in America? Could I be suffering a regional compatibility issue? Perhaps the PRINCO brand of DVD's are junk as one split apart, but was I was able to copy it without it's top layer.

Thanks in advance for helping. These disk have the coolest pics and vids on them.

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

Although disk sizes and capacities vary, they use the same standard (ISO 9660) for the file system on DVD R disks.

If you wrote it as a DVD RW disk it may be a software problem on your end that does NOT allow you to read an RW disk. You need software that can read UDF disks (ISO/IEC 13346) standard.

USUALLY, if you have RW capability on your computer (you installed the software from the manufacturers disk you should be able to read it. If you didn't, then you probably just have to install the software from the CD that came with your optical drive.

IT is a possibility that your drive can't read DVD-RW disks. Some of the older drives and most combo (DVD reader/CD writer) drives can't. If this is the case, a drive upgrade may be in your future. Burners are cheap now-a-days (under 40k).

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sojourner1 · Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:55 pm Post subject:

Thanks. I ran the Nero info tool and found that my DVD reading capabilities include -R and -RW, but not +R and +RW nor -R DL or +R DL so it could be that I need a new DVD drive. I also installed InCD reader in case it were created with InCD or SecurDisc whatever that might be. Nero doesn't seem to help like many users claim it does. Perhaps I need a new DVD drive or am lacking .dll or driver files of some sort due to the age of my Toshiba laptop. I tried ISO buster, but it just hangs.

The PRINCO dvd disks say, "DVD-R," on them so they are -R type of DVD's. I tested each of my disks in Thailand to see that they were working and they worked in Thailand, but not at home. If you come up with anything, thanks in advance.

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

sojourner1 · Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 6:48 pm Post subject:

It shows the folders on the disk and the size that they should be, but when I open them, it hangs up the computer. I'm getting a new DVD writing drive and hopefully can recover the DVD data disk that way.

rocklee · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul

Did you end the session while you were burning those disc? Or were you using multi-session and haven't closed them properly? Princo is a Japanese brand and are usually quite good and reliable.

Can you remember the software that you used in Thailand?

suadente · Joined: 27 Sep 2004

I bought a few DVD's and CD's when I was in Thailand a while back, and about 15% of them ended up not working. Maybe they pushed eject 2 seconds too soon or something?

Can you see that data is written on the disk? On burned disks, you can usually look at the data side, not the label side, of the disk and see where the data is burned. It's a slightly different color.

Would it be worth it to take it to a data-recovery shop?