Recover data from damaged CDs and DVDs with this Cloudeight Freeware Pick

By | August 27, 2011
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Most of you think you just put stuff on DVD or CD and, like the ruby slippers, “there they are and there they’ll stay”. But data and files and what not, are not like Dorothy’s feet. If Dorothy goes traipsing through a briar patch with Briar Rabbit, her feet will get all scratched up. A little antibiotic ointment and her feet will be as good as new. But you can’t put antibiotic cream on your CDs or DVDs though. Well, that’s not actually truthful. You can put antibiotic cream on them, but it won’t do them any good; actually it may wreck them. I really don’t know, I’ve never put antibiotic cream on a CD or DVD.

Let’s step away from Dorothy’s feet and tippy toe into the garden of reality for a moment. If you’ve got precious photos, files, documents, purloined MP3’s (just being facetious, don’t get all grumpy), or anything else stored on CD or DVD – like pirated movies – and you think you precious stuff is going to last as long as Dorothy’s feet, you’re wrong, wrong, wrong. CDs and DVDs age, like EB and I. The lose their minds – or more appropriately, they lose data. And, antibiotic cream won’t bring it back, no matter what you think.

Enough of our rambling…here’s what the developer has to say:

“As your CD and DVD collection grows, there are two important problems you face – do your CDs and DVDs still work? What can you do when a CD or DVD starts to have problems? These are crucial questions since the discs are used to store valuable files like email, home movies, photographs, business/tax records and music. The solution is to use a free program like CDCheck. It can scan most CDs in a few minutes to tell you if the data is OK – this way, you don’t have to find out the hard way that there is a problem. Plus you can use the time it takes for a scan to complete as indicator of the CD or DVDs overall health – even though files may not be recorded as damaged, slower results normally indicate a CD that is on the way out (expect longer times if there are more files on the CD).

If a CD or DVD is showing files with damage or you can no longer read a file in a drive, CDCheck can be switched to recovery mode and make a full sweep of the CD or DVD, recovering lost files along the way. When parts of a file can’t be fully recovered, the program will still recover any salvageable fragments. Many file formats such as Zip, TIFF and JPEG can still be used if incomplete (success of this technique varies, depending on the damage). Most zip tools have a ‘repair archive’ function, and a standard graphics editor can help repair damage to photographs caused by missing fragments.

Since CDCheck is freeware (free for personal use) and a small download, it is worth getting a copy and occasionally using it on your CD or DVD collection. Note: the authors state that you should request a free license from CDCheck online (you must register as a CDCheck online user, activate your account, login to CDCheck online and request free license).”

OK. What this program, called CDCheck, does is recover valuable stuff from old or slightly damaged DVDs, CDs, and hard drives.

If you want a program that can rescue data from old, crummy, scratched or otherwise slightly blemished CDs and DVDs, you’ll find CDCheckdoes a great job. Give CDCheck a try.

Learn more about and/or download CDCheck here. It’s such a great program, we’ve named it a Cloudeight freeware pick.

The Details for which you hunger:

CDCheck
Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7
32bit and 64bit systems
A CD/DVD recovery program
2.92 MB Windows Installer

One thought on “Recover data from damaged CDs and DVDs with this Cloudeight Freeware Pick

  1. Charlene Roberts

    This is really great!!!!! I have a copy right protected CD of Paint Shop pro 8 with update of animation shop that is badly damaged and was able to copy it to a data CD. Just had to click brouse and insert CD then copy to my doucments and from there send it to CD Drive. So simple and it really works. Have tried several programs trying to make a copy of this damaged disk and none worked but this one sure did. Thank you
    Charlene

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