this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025
33 points (97.1% liked)

Linux

9427 readers
248 users here now

A community for everything relating to the GNU/Linux operating system (except the memes!)

Also, check out:

Original icon base courtesy of lewing@isc.tamu.edu and The GIMP

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I have a collection of DVDs and CDs that I’ve been meaning to archive. However, most of them must be scratched because whenever I try to read them, they get an I/O error in a random spot of one of the 1gb files. I heard that you can do some magic with ddrescue and possibly even read them in reverse, but don’t know the limitations of that when it comes to USB DVD readers. How can I copy these reliably?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] elucubra@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

ddrescue.

Also, maybe look for a CD lens cleaner.

May be hard to find nowadays. An alternative is gently clean the lens with a Qtip slightly moist with distilled water, and dried with the other, dry end.

[–] hodgepodgin@lemmy.zip 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

that was something I tried, to no avail. I used a clean lens cleaner with a dab of distilled water. I am only assuming at this point that the drive is scratched, but to my eyes there is nothing wrong with the CD. They are just maybe a decade old at this point and my cousins want a copy of the data which I intend to send them by ripping the existing CDs.

[–] elucubra@piefed.social 1 points 2 hours ago

Quick question, are these burned blank disks, or purchased commercial disks?