News Contents: DVDisaster

dvdisaster

dvdisaster

dvdisaster 0.72
Developer(s)	Carsten Gnörlich
Initial release	?
Stable release	0.72.2 (October 31, 2010) _[+/−]
Preview release	0.79.3 Alpha (November 21, 2010) _[+/−]
Written in	C
Operating system	Cross-platform
Available in	English
Type	Data recovery
License	GPL
Website	dvdisaster.net

dvdisaster is a computer program aimed to enhance data survivability on optical discs by creating error detection and correction data, which is used for data recovery. This program can be used either to generate Error-Correcting Code (ECC) data from an existing media or to augment an ISO image with ECC data prior to being written onto a medium. dvdisaster is free software available under the GNU General Public License.

Recovery modes

When an optical disc is physically damaged (such as by scratching), or has begun to deteriorate, some parts of the data on the disc may become unreadable. By utilizing the ECC data previously generated by dvdisaster, damaged parts of the disc data can be recovered.

The two modes of ECC data generation in dvdisaster make use of Reed–Solomon codes. In RS01 mode, the generated data is created from a disc image and is stored in a separate file, which must be written on some other medium. Alternatively, in RS02 mode, the ECC data is appended to the end of the disc image before the image is burned to disc.

dvdisaster can be helpful to recover the contents of a damaged disc even when no ECC data is available. The entire disc can be read into an image, skipping damaged parts. dvdisaster can then repeatedly rescan just the missing parts until all damaged areas have been filled in by correct data.