CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Recovery is a free recovery software for Windows that can do exactly that. Don’t expect the program to do wonders though. It tries to copy all files located on an optical drive like a CD or DVD drive to the computer system. Only one source folder and multiple file names can be added to the recovery queue. Files and folders are displayed under the source folder or file name listing at the top of the program interface.

The program itself is pretty easy to use. You need to install it after you have downloaded the setup file. Skip the request to (freely) register the program. A click on Add Folder and the selection of a connected optical drive adds this drive to the recovery queue.

You can furthermore change the output folder or copying speed. Copying speed ranges from fastest, with less chances to recover unreadable or partially readable files, to slowest, which offers the best chance of recovering the selected contents.

A click on Start begins the recovery process. CD DVD Blu-Ray Recovery tries to read and copy all contents to the local hard drive. A log next to the start button indicates the process. Files that have been copied successfully are displayed as OK next to their file name.

The program is not as sophisticated as comparable recovery solutions. There is for instance no option to set the number of read retries, or to compare files on CD, DVD or Blu-Ray with the files copied to the hard drive. It is possible to use third party tools like File Check MD5 for that purpose.

Still, CD/DVD/BlueRay Recovery is easy to use and worth a try. Users who need more configuration options should look under related articles where additional recovery programs are linked.

Instructions and downloads are provided at the developer website. The program worked fine under Windows 7. It should run fine on other Microsoft operating systems.

Update:

I have been notified that Martik does not appear to be the rightful owner of the program. As a consequence, I have removed the link to the program from the article. The issue can be further discussed on the Portable Freeware website or here in the comments.

I suggest you take a look at our CD DVD Data Recovery Software Overview for alternatives to recover data from optical discs.

Why can files become unreadable on optical media? Burned CDs and DVDs suffer from material degradation. And most disks also suffer from oxidation, not to mention scratches and other forms of physical contacts. The average lifespan of such disks is said to be ten years.

This overview looks at free solutions to recover files from CDs and DVDs.

It should be obvious that data that is not there anymore physically cannot be read by even the best DVD or CD recovery software. Sometimes though files can not be read by the user in Windows, while they are largely recoverable on the byte level. Basically, data recovery software copies every readable byte of the optical disks to another storage device.

IsoBuster

isobuster

What the developer says:

It supports all optical disc formats and all common optical disc file-systems. Start up IsoBuster, Insert a disc, select the drive (if not selected already) and let IsoBuster mount the media. IsoBuster immediately shows you all the tracks and sessions located on the media, combined with all file-systems that are present. This way you get easy access, just like explorer, to all the files and folders per file-system. Instead of being limited to one file-system that the OS picks for you, you have access to “the complete picture”. Access data from older sessions, access data that your OS (e.g. Windows) does not see or hides from you etc.

IsoBuster is available as a free and professional edition. The free version has several limitations, largely lack of HD DVD, Blu-Ray and file format support.

The program tries to install a toolbar during installation, make sure to cancel that before continuing. The program is simple to use. It will automatically recognize a CD or DVD that has been inserted into the drive. The sessions, tracks folders and files are displayed in the program interface.

Here it is possible to navigate the menu structure, and extract individual files or files from folders from the disk. IsoBuster displays a Save As dialog and extracts the data to the selected disk.

Several recovery options can be configured in the preferences. This includes the maximum number of retries, sorting criteria, file system specific settings or image files handlings. IsoBuster can load CD and DVD images as well, which is the recommended way of handling recoveries.

CD Recovery Toolbox

cd recovery toolbox

What the developer says:

CD Recovery Toolbox Free – repair damaged CD disks

CD Recovery Toolbox tool was developed for recovering damaged files from different disk types: CD, DVD,HD DVD, Blu-Ray, etc. You can use it to restore information lost as a result of some mechanical damage of the disk (scratches, chips, different spots on thesurface) or as a result of incorrect recording.

This program is very easy to use. CD Recovery Toolbox supports recovery of CD, DVD,HD DVD and Blu-Ray disks. It begins with the selection of the drive, and the output directory. The program then reads the files from the disk and displays them in a file browser.

Here it is possible to select the root folder, or one of the subfolders of the disk for recovery. A click on Save reads the data from the disk and saves it on the selected storage device.

CD Check

cdcheck

What the developer says:

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.

CD Check is a software that needs to be registered on the developer’s homepage before it is free to use for a lifetime. The program can check a disk for read errors, which the other programs in this overview cannot. The time of each check depends on the disk and the speed of the drive.

The other options are to compare directories, for instance a directory on the CD or DVD with a local directory, and to recover files from the disk. For comparison purposes, hashes are generated.

DVD Disaster

dvd disaster

What the developer says:

CD, DVD and BD media keep their data only for a finite time (typically for many years). After that time, data loss develops slowly with read errors growing from the outer media region towards the inside.

Archival with data loss protection

dvdisaster stores data on CD/DVD/BD (supported media) in a way that it is fully recoverable even after some read errors have developed. This enables you to rescue the complete data to a new medium.

Data loss is prevented by using error correcting codes. Error correction data is either added to the medium or kept in separate error correction files. dvdisaster works at the image level so that the recovery does not depend on the file system of the medium. The maximum error correction capacity is user-selectable.

DVD Disaster is not a typical data recovery software, as it can be used to prevent data recovery by adding error correction codes to optical disks. To create error correction codes a disk image is required. The program is able to create those disk images and create the codes. Those codes can then later be used to recover files from a disk.

Roadkil’s Unstoppable Copier

unstoppable copier

What the developer says:

Recovers files from disks with physical damage. Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data. The program will attempt to recover every readable piece of a file and put the pieces together. Using this method most types of files can be made useable even if some parts of the file were not recoverable in the end.

The program can be used as a daily backup system using its batch mode functions. A list of transfers can be saved to a file and then run from the command line to perform the same batch of transfers on a regular basis without having to use the GUI interface. The program supports command line parameters which allow the application to be run from schedulers or scripts so it can be fully integrated into daily server tasks.

Roadkill’s Unstoppable Copier can read data from any kind of disk. It tries to recovery files on a byte level, and can copy files partially because of this. This often means that files can still be accessed, especially if they are not binary.

Abyssal Recovery

abyssal recovery

What the developer says:

Abyssal Recovery can rescue corrupted or lost data from damaged, scratched, or defective CD and DVD discs. Abyssal Recovery can copy the files to another destination on your hard drive. Abyssal Recovery will skip the bytes which are not readable from file and copy all other bytes to extract maximum data. You can set the program to copy byte with byte to minimize the losses, or you can set a higher number of bytes to be copied once for a faster recovery.

Abyssal Recovery is a basic CD and DVD data recovery software that tries to rescue data from partially unreadable disks by copying all readable bytes to another storage device. It does not offer an advanced feature set as several of the other recovery solutions in this guide.

Update: Abyssal Recovery is no longer available. The link has been removed.

Verdict

Two of the tools in this review can be used to prevent data loss. Both CD Check and DVD Disaster offer the means to check data on disks regularly to ensure 100% readability of the data. DVD Disaster even offers a solution if data becomes unreadable.

For disks with corrupt data, IsoBuster is probably the prime choice. Even though it may make sense to use several tools for best recovery results.

Have you encountered unreadable disks in the past? If so, what have you done to recover the data on them?

Abyssal Recovery is just one of the recovery tools that Windows users can use to recover files on CDs and DVDs. Computer users in need for data recovery software can also take a look at previously reviewed applications like Isobuster, CD Recovery Toolbox, CD Check or Dataminer.

Abyssal Recovery is a basic disc recovery software that will copy files on the byte level ensuring that everything that can still be read will be copied to the destination directory.

The program lacks the advanced options of comparable recovery software apps such as Isobuster. The recovery process is divided into three steps. It begins with the selection of the files that should be recovered from the disk. The destination directory is then selected in the next step which is followed by the actual process of copying the files to that directory.

Abyssal Recovery is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. It can be downloaded from the developer’s homepage.

Isobuster is a disc recovery software that is available as a free and professional version. The free version has most of the features of the pro version except for (high-end) data recovery from UDF discs and images.

The free version is classified as adware as it tries to install a toolbar and change the homepage and default search engine. All of those ad related changes can be disabled during installation.

Isobuster can try to recover data from image files and discs. It is usually recommended to create an image file from a disc first and load that into the disc recovery software to use the original disc as little as possible.

The program can extract tracks and save them in a disc image format such as Iso.

All recovery options are accessible from the right-click menu as well. A right-click on a track or disc opens options to create MD5 checksums, find missing files or folders, perform a surface scan or create a list of known erroneous sectors.

Isobuster is an easy to use software that will display the recovered files directly in its interface from where they can be extracted to the local computer system. The software program is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows and available for download at the developer’s website.

You can take a look at our CD Data Recovery overview for some additional disc recovery programs.

The best practice in the beginning is therefor to clean the disk properly. One could start with a quick dusting using cloth that has been ideally designed for that purpose. This wont remove fingerprints and other dirt though. To tackle those you use liquids to clean the CD. This can again be done with specialized expensive solutions or some warm water and mild soap.

Sometimes the best CD cleaning efforts do not have the desired effect. If data on the CD is unreadable so called CD data recovery tools come to use which try to recover the data from the CD.

CD Recovery Toolbox

The data recovery tool has been specifically designed for CD, DVD and HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disks. The application has been streamlined for ease of use as the recovery process can be initiated with just a few clicks. It will display the contents of the selected media giving the user the option to select specific files – or all – for recovery.

developer link

Iso Puzzle

Iso Puzzle creates an ISO image of a selected CD or DVD flagging good and bad sectors at the end of the process to give the user an overview of the situation. It will also create a file on the local disk detailing the bad sectors that could not be read. The unique solution by this software program is to utilize different CD or DVD drives to read those bad sectors as error correction differs widely among drives.

CD Check

CD Check can recover unreadable files from disks. What makes it unique is the ability to create hashes of those files at the first startup. Those hashes can be used to compare the states back then with the current state of the disk. It does come with the means to recovery unreadable files from those disks.

developer link

Copy Cat and Unstoppable Copier

Those two tools are copy software programs that try to copy files from a selected location to another one. They have been designed to use various reading techniques to copy files even from scratched or partially readable media.

developer link 1 link 2

Do you know of additional free tools to recover CDs or DVDs? Let us know in the comments.

Iso Puzzle creates an iso image of the disc that you place in the drive. All good sectors, that are those that can be read without errors, are written correctly and flagged as good while bad sectors will be flagged as bad. There is a reason for this, you can use different CD and DVD drives to read the media and add pieces of the CD or DVD that another drive could not read. That’s where the puzzle aspect comes into play, some drives have a better error correction than others and it could be that you can recover the full disc if you try enough drives.

Only the sectors that the previous drives could not read are tried again with the new drive. Just use the new drive as the source and the created flg file (where the good and bad sectors are defined) as the destination. New recovered sectors are written in an IMP file which has to be imported into the iso image after the process has finished.

If the CD or DVD is not recognized at all when you put it into the drive you have to click on Force Size and on Drive Reported in the window that pops up. Click on start afterwards to start the process.

Update: The original site the software was originally posted on is no longer available. We have updated the latest (and last) version of the application to our own servers. You can download it from the following link: Iso Puzzle (28)