Simple procedures to handle unsuccessfully finalized DVDs, damaged DVDs or DVDs that have not been burned correctly by a video camcorder or recorder and has some corrupt data.
It is a good idea for you to first consider other possible causes of what appear to be DVD errors such as a dirty disc surface, a dirty lens in the DVD reader or other software and hardware related problems. Prior to embarking on any of the following you need to eliminate all possible causes for having trouble with a DVD.
Check to see your DVD burner has the latest firmware by going to the manufacturer's website. Check to see if the media (brand and type) is compatible with your DVD burner/reader. Once you are certain that you have an unsuccessfully finalized DVD or a corrupt DVD you can get started.
Scratched DVD Disks.
A simple visual inspection of the surface of the disc will tell you straight away whether your first problem is physical damage to the disc. If you can see a scratch or scratches on the surface then this may need to be addressed first. I say "may" because personally I use good DVD software to check to see if the disc will copy before I embark on any other course of action.
Good quality DVD software can read through a lot of surface errors because of its superior algorithms so I always take the lazy route and see if I can simply make a new copy.
Now failing that you could go online and buy some expensive DVD scratch repair kit. Or you could do as I do and go to your local hardware store or even your own garage! All you will need is a bottle of any neutral colored (clear) car polishing product. Turtlewax happens to be the one I use.
Take a VERY soft cloth (NOT paper towel), apply a little polish to the surface of the disc and GENTLY (remember, it's not a car!) rub the disc. Use straight strokes from the centre of the disc to the outer edge and continue to do this until you can see the scratch either disappear or reduce noticeably. Then using the same motion and fresh cloth buff the disc back to its original shine. If you are still unsuccessful repeat the process until you can be certain, again by visual inspection, that the problem is now not coming from a damaged disc surface.
DVD Disc Data Repair/Recovery
The software you can use for this is Nero 9.
Put the problem disc in the DVD drive of your computer then:
1. Select a straight DVD to DVD copy. Nero 9 will now try to read the contents of the disc and, if it can, write the contents to a folder on your hard drive. It is as simple as that. It is either going to work or not! If it does do it then the copy you now have on your hard drive will be fully repaired and you can then burn a new copy.
2. Failing the above you next alternative depends on whether you have a data DVD or a video DVD. So lets go with the video DVD first.
Again using Nero 9 open the Nero Recode module and select to recode an entire DVD. Load the problem DVD and allow Recode to detect it and import. The reason we are going with Recode is that it is a separate module and has a different way of approaching DVDs.
We are going to trick recode into recoding the video DVD without actually recoding! Recode's real purpose is to reduce the bit rate of video files on a DVD so that you can fit more on to a single disc. In this case we are going to tell recode to "recode" at exactly the same rate as the original so that it will just make a perfect copy.
Hopefully, in doing that, the algorithms within Recode will correct the faulty DVD video information and...Voila! New corrected disc!
Now failing that we have another shot!
3. Still with Nero 9 we can go to a new feature of Nero called RescueAgent. This is a long overdue addition to DVD suites and kudos to Nero for adding it.
Simply load the disc, video or data, it doesn't matter. Get RescueAgent to scan the disc and it will tell you what is recoverable. Follow the onscreen prompts and it will extract what it can automatically.
Unfinalized discs.
If at all possible try to get the original device used to create the disc to finalize it.
If you have been left with an otherwise perfectly good disc, but unfinalized, do the following.
This requires Nero 9.
Place the unfinalized disc into the computer DVD tray. Open Nero 9 StartSmart.
Click "create and edit" at the top of the screen.
Click "author, edit and capture video." NeroVision 5 will start.
Click on the disk tools drop down menu then click "finalize disk."
In the option box that appears choose "no menus" and let it run.
Hopefully you now have a fully finalized disc that is readable.
Lance is not very good at writing about himself in the third person. He is an ex-patriot Australian living in Taiwan running a business consulting company. His grasp of the Chinese language ranges from poor to laughable and in most circumstances his actual use of the Chinese language results in laughter.
DVD Disc Repair
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