dvd rw data recovery

[bertiebaws]

basically we shot the last six months of our baby on a dvd rw on Sony handycam dvd 205 and while visiting my parents the wife asked if she could view footage on their LG RH7500 HDD DVD recorder.

So the dvd player reported back that it couldn't see the disc and to cut a long story short it got either initialised or reinitialised. (I werent in the room at the time so not sure) anyhow now the dvd appears to have been formatted or at least the files on it deleted. Anyhow to prove she did nothing wrong my mother recorded a couple of seconds footage on the dvd and popped it back in the LG and that clip appeared and played.

What I need to know is can the original footage be recovered and how much of a job will it be

Thanks

[dandnsmith]

With CD it's a fairly simple matter to get all the data blocks, and then pass them to a hex editing tool to improvise over the oddities.

However, this is a DVD, about which I know nothing, and the format of it I know even less. Potentially there is a lot more data than on a CD - do you know how much?

I'd guess that the initialisation will have overwritten the original track info saying how much data was where - but are these DVDs of the RW type or just R?

[bertiebaws]

Hi Derek

It was a DVD-RW

Apparently from what I've read on the isobuster site Its a Lab job, unless the erase software on the recorder works in the spirt of dvd+rw, which it appears doesn't wipe the rw disc prior to use it just makes it look empty and overwrites as it requires the space.

Still waiting to hear back from LG on whether it follows +rw standard or not.

I've also found that these HDD/DVD recorders can get dusty optics easily which makes them prone to not seeing data and trying to format dvd rw with stuff on them.

[Analoguesat]

It might be worth contacting a couple of data recovery firms and see how much they would charge to have a look at it.

CD/RW and DVD/RW discs are a bloody menace - you wouldnt believe how many folks Ive heard of who have accidentally wiped something important off them. Use write once discs for anything vital!

[bertiebaws]

Can anyone recommend a good lab?

I've kinda had a quick scout at google results but some only deal with HD problems. Others who's websites looked a tad amateur to say the least.

Could I make it more difficult to retrieve by having a go myself before sending to a lab? Or would it not make any difference ??

Yup using once only media sounds good with hindsight prolly stick to that in future. Just thought might be easier to edit in camera with RW but I never did

[bertiebaws]

I have given Apex labs the details and they reckon they can do it but are quoting £175

Could I make it impossible to do by having a go first and failing?

Thanks

[dandnsmith]

Originally Posted by bertiebaws

Apparently from what I've read on the isobuster site Its a Lab job, unless the erase software on the recorder works in the spirt of dvd+rw, which it appears doesn't wipe the rw disc prior to use it just makes it look empty and overwrites as it requires the space.

I hadn't looked at the isobuster site - rather an obvious place, given that I use the software to recover CD stuff at intervals.

I've also found that these HDD/DVD recorders can get dusty optics easily which makes them prone to not seeing data and trying to format dvd rw with stuff on them.

I'd think about using a dvd-cleaner disk every now and then - I do on my CD and DVD drives on computers

[bertiebaws]

Just an update of what happened

Elsewhere it was suggested I use cd roller to attempt recovery. It was also mentioned I could recreate the same settings with another disc and get a better understanding of what really happened ( as I was not present when the origional disk was formatted/initialised) and then attempt recovery of it before trying the original.

Well I tried recreating the same scenario with another dvd-rw and found that not only did the LG DVD format it during initialisation the bloody camera formatted it also when I put it back in there. I had about 4 different attempts at recovery with CD roller before giving up, It couldn't find anything on that disc.
However it was noticed that the LG initialisation on my recreation took 6 miniutes as opposed to the 20 or so seconds that the original disc took. So I thought I would still give it a go. It took about a 15 minute scan but amazingly it found ALL the lost footage. As you can imagine I am absolutely delighted. The bit that was recorded over the top appears right at the begining of the footage but it hasn't overwritten anything important (if anything at all!)
They have been recovered as 2 unnamed .vob files (rather than the original .IFO ,.BUP and .MPEG)
Many thanks for all your help
Regards

[Analoguesat]

Thats great news mate. Thanks for the update - its always good to hear how things work out.

Now go and buy some write once discs!

[Bulldoguk1]

mabye try R-studio