Optical Media Recovery
Like other storage media optical media may fall victim to data loss.
Optical Media
CD-ROM
CD-R
CD-RW
DVD ROM
DVD+R
DVD-R
DVD+RW
DVD-RW
Blue-Ray Disc BD ROM
BD-R
BD-RE
More Optical Media
LD
EVD
FVD
GD-ROM
HVD
M-Disc
MiniDisc
Magneto Optical Disc MOD
PCD
PD
PDD
UDO
UMD
VMD
Physical causes - scratches, heat damage, broken discs
Scratches on the surfaces
The most common hardware defect is a scratched surface which may not be visible to the naked eye. In an unfavourable spot (e.g. from the outer to the inner edge) a scratch will cause immediate data loss.
Heat damage
Optical media are extremely sensitive to solar radiation and unsteady temperature. Due to minimal chemical changes inside the coating data loss can be caused. Nevertheless, successful data rescue is still possible in most cases.
Blank discs are broken
We reiceive broken optical media regularly. Reconstructing these takes huge efforts and take up several months of work.