CD/DVD Recovery consists of the programs for recovering your data from any physically damaged, unreadable, incorrect burning, formatted or defective CD, DVD, Blu-ray discs.

Contents

1 Free vs. Paid
2 Tips
3 How-tos
4 Editor's remarks
5 Best Freeware
6 Top Shareware

Free vs. Paid

FREE	PAID
Support CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD-ROM, DVD+/-R/W Good for common users	Support the general CD / DVD discs (such as CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD-ROM, DVD+/-R/W), but also supports various external blu-ray disk and HD disk More useful features: UDF recovery, batch recovery, file preview etc. Good for movie and CD lovers Tech Support
Generally, the freeware can meet the common users' requirements, and the shareware is more appropriate for users who frequently use variety of discs, such as disc burning enthusiasts, DVD collectors. Shareware supports more useful features and disc formats, like blu-ray disc. (CD/DVD Recovery Freeware Downloads)

Tips

Try different software before making a choice.
You'd better use a DVD burner when you recover data, for it does more precise work than DVD-ROM Drive. It can find out more damaged tracks.

How to recover the data from damaged discs?

CD / DVD / Blu-ray disc data recovery is much different from other data file recovery. It requires a special recovery program tool. And its recovery process is also quite different from others. Please follow the following steps to complete the recovery, for the maximum possibility of recovering data on the disc.

Step 1. Find out the reasons why DVD drive/player can't read data from your CD/DVD discs
First, you should make sure your dvd drive can read other discs, to rule out the drive cause. Then pick up the disc to the light. if there are transparent holes on the disc surface, the data on the transparent location has been already physically damaged, and you'll never be able to recover it. If there are not any holes, but just some scratches, congratulations, your data on that disc has great possibility of recovery.

Step 2. Start to clean the disc.
Usually use just water to rinse the disc, but if the disc is deeply scratched or polluted, the white toothpaste or BRASSO will be helpful, then with a soft cloth to wipe clean the water gently. Be sure to wipe the disc in a straight line from the center to the edge.

Step 3. Try Disc Repair Kits to recover the data
If the recovery is unsuccessful, and we ensure it is the cause of deep scratches and stains (see first step), then we need to use the disc repair kits. As for the disc usually has a 0.5-1mm plastic protective layer, so we can try to use special tools to smooth the plastic protective layer, and fix the scratches. This will greatly help to raise the recovery success, but it will require extra cost. Amazon has a special category for Disc Clean & Repair

Step 4. Try again to read the disc or use the recovery program.

Step 5. If still unsuccessful, please seek the help of a professional.

Our editors have done the following work to save your time:

List all the popular CD/DVD Recovery Software (including the best freeware)
Re-rank the products by brands reputation, product downloads, and product sales.
List the available discount coupons/deals for you, so that you can skip the time-consuming searching for a coupon and enjoy discount directly.