Help Please, data disappeared from CD

[AT1]

Urgent Help Please
Something very strange occurred to my data CD, suddenly all my photos and data files disappeared.

I have windows xp, dell laptop Inspiron 8200, Pentium 4 1.8 GHS

I down loaded few pictures and after the last one, the computer stopped. When I rebooted all what I found is the following:

D:\UDFREADER

When I clicked explore there were 3 files on the cd which are:

UdfrChk.exe
udfrinst.zl
autorun

the autorun file contains (open=udfrchk.exe)

I have a registered up-to-date copies of MacAfee antivirus and Firewall plus.

Running the DdfrChk.exe, prompted me to install Roxio reader for windows 95/2000

when I replaced the CD with another one, the data could be read without problems.
I know that my Original CD was almost full, and it shows that 0 bytes left.

Any advice what to do to retrieve those data files and folders? The Cd contains very Important work and photos.
Thank you

[cronus71]

Did you try the CD in another system?
The data you burned on the CD is most likely still there.

Which CDR software did you use to burn the images? Any chance it was Adaptecs? if yes, you most likely have Direct CD on your system.

Direct CD is a Universal Data Format reader, so it's possible that the software has become corrupt, or then the TOC on the CD itself is corrput. For example when you insert a CD with data on, UDF reader tries to access the Table Of Content - TOC, if it's corrupted or the UDF reader itself is corrputed, you should see exactly what you see now on the CD, only a few files referring to UDF.

Or if you used another system to burn this CD, with Direct CD, you will need the UDF reader on your laptop too.

All the best

[AT1]

cronus71
Thank you for your reply. I tried another CD on the same laptop and there is no problem.
In this case the UDF reader is probably ok.
I have Roxio CD creator Platinum ed V 5.2.3 which is the latest.

If I understand you correctly, the TOC on the CD is corrupted then! is there any solution?

Mind you the CD title has changed to UDFREADER D:\

as I mentioned earlier, the only files that can be recognised by Windows xp or Direct Cd are:

Udfrchk.exe, udfrinst.zl, autorun.bat

these files were never there before.

I really appreciate your help if you can.
thanks

[cronus71]

Hmmm...I've never been in a similar scenario, so I don't know so much about recovering (the possible) data from a CD with a corrupted TOC.

But I found this on Google

Subject: [6-2-6] Arrowkey - CD-R Diagnostic
(2002/08/01)

Platforms supported: Windows (95, NT, 2K, XP)
See http://www.arrowkey.com/ (or http://www.cdrom-prod.com/)

[ products formerly published under "Paul Crowley CD-ROM Productions" ]

Does a number of useful things, such as displaying the contents of the TOC, listing the full volume label, analyzing the media, and recovering data from "lost" sessions and hosed UDF discs.

This software is widely recommended for recovering data from otherwise unusable discs.

So you might want to look for that or something similar, seems a bit dear though, so you might want to explore other resources e.g have a chat with the guys who hang around the Direct Connect Forum here on DF.

Also one other thing to check, a longshot I know, but is it possible that Roxio cached your image/files somewhere within it's directories?

All the best

[Aido]

IsoBuster might be able to do the job but you'd need the registered version to handle UDF..

[AT1]

cronus71

Thanks m8, I went to the website and the company (Arrowkey) seems to have so man versions of CD recovery programs which I listed below.
I read the infow about them and couldn't detect the differance, any idea?

CD/DVD Diagnostic, CD Rx Data Retriever,

[cronus71]

Yep, it was the CD/DVD Diagnostic they mentioned.

It says "FREE evaluation version discovers lost files....Guaranteed"
http://www.arrowkey.com/cddvddiagnostic.html

So you might want to give it a go.

[AT1]

I'll try m8 and will let you know.
many thanks

[cronus71]

Cool, yep I hope it works out for you m8.

[oE]

It could be that the session on the disk is not open.

See if you can record another session to the disk and once it is closed the disk might be readable.

Make sure the new session is an append and not a Fresh one as it will wipe the contents of the disk.

[arrid]

You see those files if you need to install the packetcd driver, so the system can read the session with the files in it...

[AT1]

cronus71; thanks m8
i bought the software over the net and seems to be working fine. It managed to recover 96%. It is great.
It did however, took long time, but worth it.

I appreciate you help, Thank you once again m8. All the best.

by the way?
there is a utility I found on Roxio CD called scancd, it took so long and did not work, computer forse after 4 hours or so.
The Arrowkey software is Brilliant. Thanks.

[cronus71]

Excellent, I'm glad you managed to recover most of the content.

All the best