DOWNLOADING CD-R DIAGNOSTIC

• Click on the Download button, located at http://www.cdrom-prod.com.
• Scroll down to the CD-R Diagnostic heading and click the Download button below it.
• You may get a prompt to save the file cdrdiag.exe or run it; you should select the "Save to disk" option.
• You are then prompted to save the file cdrdiag.exe somewhere. Placing it in your regular download directory is fine, or just put it on the desktop.
• Click the "Save" button and begin downloading the install file

Note that this is a demonstration version of the program only.  The full version is only available by purchasing it.

INSTALLATION

This program works with nearly all CD devices. To recover data written with a CD-RW drive (on either CD-R or CD-RW discs), you must use a CD-RW drive. The Error Summary function, described later in this document, works with most recorders and many CD-ROM drives. It is recommended that your own CD-ROM drive be used, rather than a recorder. To inspect the contents of a CD, CD-R, or CD-RW disc, any device recognized by the CD-R Diagnostic program can be used.

DVD drives are only supported in a limited extent at this time and cannot be used to recover data from discs

In Windows Explorer, double click on the cdrdiag.exe file (which you just downloaded to your computer) to run the installation wizard. The file size is approximately 700K and the program requires about 1Mb of disk space to install.
 

RUNNING THE CD-R DIAGNOSTIC PROGRAM

The default directory for CD-R Diagnostic is named CDRDiagnostic. This directory or one you specified contains the CD-R Diagnostic program, cdrdiag.exe. If a shortcut on the desktop was not created, you can run the program by using the Start->Programs->CD-ROM Productions->CD-R Diagnostic path.
 

SELECTING THE CD

After running the program the first time, CD-R Diagnostic remembers the previously selected CD drive. This drive is automatically selected if it contains a CD, but if no CD is present, No Device is displayed on the right side of the status line on the bottom of the window, and the drive must be selected manually.

You can select a CD by:

• clicking on the Select a different device toolbar;

            or

• selecting File->Select CD ROM from the main menu.

If you change the CD in the drive, select it by clicking the Refresh button.
 

EXAMINING THE CD

After the drive containing the CD is selected (automatically or manually), CD-R Diagnostic determines the type of data on the disc, track by track. The data files are examined, and a directory much like Windows Explorer, is displayed showing the files for each data track. Clicking on the left side of the window selects different tracks.
 

TYPES OF DISC TRACKS

The following types of disc tracks are supported by CD-R Diagnostic.

Audio (a.k.a. Red Book)

Data tracks can be before or after audio tracks on a disc. Additionally, only some functions of CD-R Diagnostic are available for audio tracks.

ISO-9660, Joliet, or Rock Ridge

Simple data formats with a lot of files in each track. Generally, a single track contains all data for a single session, but there are situations where several files are recorded at the same time and the recording program causes the files to span multiple tracks.

High Sierra Group (HSG)

Although this format was discontinued, it still exists on some older discs. This type of track is only found on a CD-ROM and is identical to ISO-9660 format.

HFS (Apple)

The HFS format is used by Macintosh systems.

UDF (DirectCD, PacketCD, etc.)

Discs created in this format have data gradually appended over time, and can experience catastrophic failures, destroying even the oldest data. Since these formats require additional recovery procedures, CD-R Diagnostic systematically performs these recovery phases:

• For a Write-Once CD (CD-R), a search is performed for allocation information, which maps the blocks on the disc and allows for later re-mapping. (Read-Write CDs (CD-RW) do not have allocation information.) If this information is not found in the expected place, you are asked if an extended search should be performed. This should always be done, unless you know it causes problems. This search may take some time to perform, but status messages are displayed indicating the progress.
• Using the file directory information on the disc, locate all of the accessible files. During this phase some deleted files and folders may be found that are not ordinarily displayed, allowing you to recover files and folders that were deleted.
• Check disc sectors. If an error is encountered in step two, the portions of the disc not identified as containing data in step two are examined in detail, to see if there are any more files present. Many of the files found will not have names and are placed in a special folder named "Unattached Items." This enables you to recover remaining files that have been lost on the disc and would not otherwise be available to you.

When these phases are complete, a directory of recovered data files is displayed in a format similar to Windows Explorer. You can use drag-and-drop to copy files (and folders), as well as right-clicking on the file or folder to copy it.
 

DATA RECOVERY

After your disc has been examined by CD-R Diagnostic and the files on it are shown, you can recover data that is not otherwise accessible to you. There are three things that you can do to recover data:
 

COPY FILES

Each of the files and folders shown can be dragged to an Explorer window or the desktop so they can be written to a different CD. You can also select one or more files and right-click to copy files and/or folders to a different location.

Note: file copying is only supported with the full, purchased version of the software.  You can purchase this software through the Internet and download it within minutes of your purchase.

If an error occurs while reading a file, you are asked if you want to cancel the copy operation, skip the file with the error, or accept the error.  Using the "Skip" or "Skip All" buttons is strongly recommended - this will insure that you get files that are usable.  Files that are skipped are not copied and any part of the file that was copied is erased.

You can also click the Accept All button, which blindly accepts all future errors in all files - use this with caution.  When an error is "Accepted" the data that was read is copied - no matter what.  This may lead to files that have portions of the data incorrect, but the remainder maybe usable.  Certain types of files are recoverable in this manner, such as an archive of email, where a database file may simply be corrupted if any part of it is not copied correctly. It is up to you to select which way to handle errors and to check the contents of any files that have errors in them.

After copying multiple files, you are asked if you want a report showing the copied files. This indicates the files that were copied successfully and those that had errors during the copy operation. This is a convenient way of getting a single report of all of the copy errors that appear when copying many files in which some have errors.
 

COPY SECTORS

For advanced users, it may be possible to extract portions of a file using the Copy Sectors function. This can also be used for examining parts of a disc that are not considered to be part of a file.

Note: this function is only supported with the full, purchased version of this software.

To copy sectors from a disc:

• Highlight a track in the left side of the window.
• Select File -> Copy Sectors
• Enter the starting and ending sector numbers of the data you want to copy.

This example shows one sector (number 16) copied to a specified filename:

COPY TRACKS

For ISO-9660 and Joliet discs, an entire track can be copied to a file with a .ISO suffix. From this, a new copy of the data in that track can be written to a CD using a program such as Adaptec Easy CD Creator or Goldenhawk CDRWin.

• Highlight a track to copy in the left side of the window.
• Select File -> Copy Sectors
• Leave the starting and ending sector numbers blank – this copies the entire track.
• Enter the output filename with a .ISO suffix.
• Note that this will only be usable with certain CD mastering programs, and only if the track originally was created using ISO-9660 or Joliet format. Packet-written discs, such as those created with DirectCD and PacketCD, cannot be copied in this manner.

SCANNING THE CD

The CD can be scanned for information and error detection using the Analysis and Error Summary tools from the Tools option on the main menu.

To scan the CD for readability and recording errors, use the Error Summary tool.

To see what the CD contains, use the Analysis tool.
 

ERROR SUMMARY

The Error Summary tool (Tools->Error Summary) is designed to measure the readability of a CD, which is useful for verifying previously recorded CDs. The tool turns down the error recovery setting as low as possible on your CD-ROM drive, allowing the maximum amount of readable data to be detected by even the lowest-end CD-ROM drives.

Note: The Error Summary tool is NOT useful for packet-written discs, such as those produced by DirectCD, PacketCD or other programs using the UDF filesystem.  These discs have intentionally unrecorded areas on them and are not suitable for the type of analysis that the Error Summary tool does.

Tip: When using the Error Summary tool to check a CD, it is better to use a CD-ROM drive other than the one which recorded the CD.

Three levels of CD error scanning, using the error summary tool, are available: Quick, Moderate, and Complete.

For any of the scan types, a window containing the results pops up when the scan is finished. If the CD is good, a green check mark and the text, "Disc appears ok," displays in the window.

If errors are detected on the CD, a red X and the text, "Disc appears to be bad," displays in the window, along with the number of bad sectors and the percentages of recovered and unrecoverable data. These are the errors that indicate recoverable data is available from the CD-ROM drive you are using, but not necessarily from other drives.

QUICK SCAN

A quick scan takes the least amount of time, but reads only a small sample from the CD, by default 500 sectors. This can be changed in the Preferences dialog.

MODERATE SCAN

A moderate scan reads a larger sample than a quick scan, defaulting to 10,000 samples, or about 3% of the disc. This can be changed in the Preferences dialog

COMPLETE SCAN

A complete scan reads the entire CD-ROM disc. This may take a significant amount of time, so you may want to run the moderate scan before this one.

ANALYSIS

The Analysis tool (Tools->Analysis) determines what information the CD contains. The Table of Contents section of the Results of Analysis window contains the number of tracks, manufacturer information, track size, what the track contains (e.g., data) and format.

The Results of Analysis window also contains information about what program created the disc, application identifiers, publisher information (if any) and many other details. At the end of the information a suggestion if the disc can be replicated (mass produced) is included.

DISC REPORT

This option from the Tools menu writes information about the files on a disc to the selected text file.

WRITE SUB-Q DATA

This option from the Tools menu gets information from an audio disc and writes it to a specified file. This information on the disc controls the time displayed while a disc is playing.
 

PURCHASING SOFTWARE

CD-ROM Productions no longer distributes products as "shareware".  They are available from a number of sources on the Internet as demonstration products, but a separate product must be purchased to enable the full functionality.  Please see our web site at http://www.cdrom-prod.com for more information about purchasing our products.