How to copy files from DVD+R to PC if DVD shows up blank?

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Seek54

Seek54

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Jul 31, 2016
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Hello, I've found some DVD's and I wanted to copy then to my PC.
I insert the disc and i see that it shows up as empty.
I see on the shiny side of the disc that it has data but the pc shows the disc as empty.
I'm using Windows 10.
How do I get my invisible files/videos from the DVD/CD?
Thanks.
 
Solution
Solandri
There are a few possibilities.

  • ■Your drive may not be able to read this disk. DVDs rely on the read laser reflecting off the shiny layer. The data layer has pits burned into it which can block this reflectance. The chemistry of R CDs and DVDs (which allows these pits to be burned in with a laser) only has about 1/10th the reflectance of a pressed CD/DVD. RW CDs and DVDs are even worse. The phase change material blocks enough light that they only have about 1/100th the reflectance of a pressed CD/DVD. Your drive's read hardware may be marginal enough or have degraded enough that it cannot read this DVD+R anymore. Or the laser diode or sensor may have failed entirely (do other discs work?). Try the disc in other drives...
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mbarnes86

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Sep 16, 2010
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Hi

Does your dvd contents show up in other pc's?
Does the dvd drive support dvd+R?

Do you know what software wrote the data to the dvd disk?
Was it a pc or a dvd TV recorder ?

Finally do all dvd's appear blank ? (Including DVD-R disks)
If so dead dvd drive or corruped registry
Probably related to upper or lower filter drivers
Microsoft has a fix for this corruption


Regards
Mike Barnes

 
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Solandri

Solandri

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Jan 4, 2012
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There are a few possibilities.

  • ■Your drive may not be able to read this disk. DVDs rely on the read laser reflecting off the shiny layer. The data layer has pits burned into it which can block this reflectance. The chemistry of R CDs and DVDs (which allows these pits to be burned in with a laser) only has about 1/10th the reflectance of a pressed CD/DVD. RW CDs and DVDs are even worse. The phase change material blocks enough light that they only have about 1/100th the reflectance of a pressed CD/DVD. Your drive's read hardware may be marginal enough or have degraded enough that it cannot read this DVD+R anymore. Or the laser diode or sensor may have failed entirely (do other discs work?). Try the disc in other drives.
    ■Unfortunately, the convention adopted for inserting CDs/DVDs was data side down, which means the reading laser diode and sensor face up. Over the years, dust can accumulate on top of them, degrading or even blocking them. I assume this is a DVD player on a desktop PC, not a laptop? Laptop units are easy to clean since they're built into the tray. Desktop units are not so easy since they're inside the housing (though that also makes them less likely to build up dust). There used to be CD/DVD cleaner disks - a disk with a bunch of bristles glued to the bottom. If you don't have one of these, you can try blasting some compressed air inside while the tray is open, though I've only had success with that once. (Be careful to keep the cap upright. If you tilt it, you can spray liquid propellant onto the surfaces, which will leave a residue when it evaporates and make the problem worse.)
    ■The disk may have degraded over time. The transparent layer may have clouded a bit and become less transparent. The reflective layer may have degraded and not reflect as well. The resulting loss in reflectivity may cause problems for some marginal drives. Again, try reading the disc in some other drives. But in this case, the disc may have degraded to the point where it's simply unreadable on most drives.
    ■Sometimes Windows seems to get locked into the idea that the DVD you've inserted is a certain type (e.g. RW or RAM) and reports there's no data on the disc because it's trying to read it the wrong way. I've only seen this a few times, not enough to really diagnose what's going on. The problem usually goes away after a reboot or two, although once it seemed to go away when I inserted a commercial movie disc (with high reflectance). My hunch is this is tied to the reflectance of the disc being low enough that the drive cannot properly figure out the correct format the disc is written in. One time the drive gave me the option to erase the DVD (like a DVD-RW) even though it was a DVD-R. Try the disc in another PC, try putting in a movie DVD first, try rebooting.

If the disc is marginal, some drives will be able to read it while others cannot. So don't conclude the disc is unreadable just because one or two PCs fail to read it. If the data is important, it's worth trying it on ever PC you can find.
 
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Solution
Seek54

Seek54

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Jul 31, 2016
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Does your dvd contents show up in other pc's? Have not tested yet because don't have another computer with me today, but i remembered these disc working before.
Does the dvd drive support dvd+R? Yes.

Do you know what software wrote the data to the dvd disk?
Was it a pc or a dvd TV recorder ? I think the DVD are written with TV recorder.

Finally do all dvd's appear blank ? (Including DVD-R disks) Have not tested dvd-r as i don't have one near me but I used a program IMGBURN and i got some files from a dvd in .iso but it is kinda corrupted as in plays like first 3 seconds and then stops, if i move the timer it shows pictures but only as long as i move it and no sound.
Can this be a problem with windows 10? I think the CD's were written in Windows XP. (Music CD works fine, even though its pretty scratched).
Should I try installing Windows 7 to try and check if the discs work?
 
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mbarnes86

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Sep 16, 2010
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Hi

I dont think window version affects this
Though a clean install would clear corrupt registry entries
Isobuster is a shareware program for data recovery from cd or dvd

If the disks came from a TV recorder the 'close disk' may need to be run to make disks readable in a pc

Regards
Mike Barnes
 
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