Software that can force read tracks/sectors from a DVD

[Jared]

So I've got a DVD-RW disk here that I was initially told wasn't working due to a 'region' issue and they just wanted it re-burned so they can play it in their DVD player. However on further investigation it seems that nothing will recognize the DVD, not Windows/Linux, not any data recovery software, or even ISOBuster. I tried it in a region free DVD drive that I have, and I even tried in another that I set to Region 2 (burned in Scotland). One time that I put it into the region 2 drive I was able to see capacity however imaging failed and I can't get it to appear again.

I can clearly see that there's data burned to the disk, however given that it's not showing any capacity in any DVD ROM drive that I have I'm pretty much stuck.

So I'm wondering if there's any software out there that can force an optical drive to just raw read a DVD showing 0 capacity?

Or even is there any special hardware that can do this?

 

[pclab]

As soon as I saw this, I remembered Isobuster. Solved a couple of problems to me.
But that's some media that's doesn't appear very often....

 

[IsoBuster]

Unless I misunderstand the problem is that this disc is virtually impossible to read by the hardware. And if the hardware fails, software can only do so much. My best advice then is to try a few more drives because not all drives behave the same on troublesome media and some may still be able to read what your current drive cannot.

 

[w.simon]

Long time ago my favorite CD writer was plextor (using it for cdilla and playstation) but was a long time ago lol

I get more success with old IDE reader than with Sata recent one...

 

[IsoBuster]

It's true that old writers can sometimes read what newer ones can't. This is not a rule, but it happens. Reasons are that they are actually able to read at low speeds. New drives, internally, often still read at 8x or higher, they simply can't go slower. Another reason is that back then each new drive was a huge development cycle with lots of testing and hardware tweaks etc. b y large teams. These days that is a whole different matter.

 

[HaQue]

Agree with isobuster. also we used to find back in the day of mucho cd burning that some drives would just not like some discs. RW discs the worst culprit. you will just have to keep trying it on different drives, probably older ones would be better, until you find one that it works on.

I agree that no software will help if the disc isn't playing nice.

The disc I assume is user created, not something that can be downloaded?

w.simon, I remember when we bought our first burner for PSX.. $1200, cant for the life of me remember the brand, but I know it had a caddy..alas buffer underrun, I knew him well!

 

[michael chiklis]

Have you tried to image it with AnyDVD in background?
http://www.slysoft.com/

 

[Jared]

No I haven't tried that. But it seems that its an issue where the hardware just can't read any data. I know its not a copy protection issue, which I am pretty sure any DVD is used for(at least that's what I used to use it for)

With one drive of mine ISO Buster does see a track, but every single sector gets a read error. I'm gonna have to try finding some older drives to play around with.

 

[HaQue]

maybe the disc wasn't finalised when written?

 

[IsoBuster]

Have you tried to image it with AnyDVD in background?
http://www.slysoft.com/

Tracks and Sessions are never affected by CSS and other Video copy protections.
Only reading the 'protected' sectors in the Video Stream would produce errors.
The sectors containing the file system(s) ISO9660, UDF and IFO/VOB would also be readable.

maybe the disc wasn't finalised when written?

That is also never a problem for IsoBuster, eat least not when using a DVD writer.
Old DVD-ROM drives won't see open sessions, but that's a hardware limitation, not a software limitation.

All I have read here seems to indicate readability problems. I hope you find a drive that can still read it.