File corruption can also originate from crashes or viruses. The effect on the system is however always the same: Files become unusable. Users with backups can simply restore a backup, providing that they are still usable, users without backups on the other hand need to use file recovery software to recover files partially or even fully.

Roadkill’s Unstoppable Copier has just been released in a new version. The software is offered as a portable version and installer for Windows and Linux operating systems. It uses a different approach than most file recovery tools, since it will not try to recover deleted files. The app tries to copy existing files from a damaged hard drive or storage device.

roadkills unstoppable copier

Copy Damaged Files

The program offers two operating modes. Copy is the first mode, accessible in the first tab of the program. It can be used to copy files from one source directory to a target directory. Statistics about the transfer are displayed in the lower half of the screen, including the number of good, corrupt and skipped files.

According to the developer, Roadkill’s Unstoppable Copier allows to “copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data”, by attempting “to recover every readable piece of a file and put the pieces together”.

While there is not a guarantee that the program will recover all files stored on a damaged storage disk, it can often restore the files partially so that they become usable again (which obviously is only true for non-binary files).

Backup System

Batch Mode is the second mode of operation offered by the software program. It largely acts as a backup system. Multiple pairs of source and target folders can be added in batch mode, to process them immediately, or regularly through the supported command line parameters.

Roadkill’s Unstoppable Copier supports several command line parameters. This includes copying files from a source to a target folder (as in the Copy tab in the UI), and the execution of a batch mode file. The Online Help of the application contains all the information needed to configure those processes.

Data recovery options can be customized in the program’s settings. Here it is possible to switch from best data recovery mode to faster recovery modes, enable the resuming of partial files, enable context menu entries or to set the maximum number of retries.

file recovery software

Unstoppable Copier is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows and Linux systems, including Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP. Take a look at other file recovery and backup software tools that we have reviewed in the past if you need an application for a different purpose, or if the application does not yield the desired results.

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.

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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.

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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.

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

You could try the unstoppable copier which is available for windows and linux. 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 usable even if some parts were not recoverable in the end. The tool could help you in the recovery, it might not work all the time but you get a good chance with it.