Question view photos on old DVD's

[conrail]

Hi all, just joined so please bear with me, especially if posting in wrong forum, I am running windows 10 home on an Acer laptop, 64bit with an external lightscribe DVD writer/reader, I have a number of DVD's with photo's of my children growning up, earliest is dated pre 1995, when I try to view the contents I am left with a blank page, viewing properties shows that there is 100% used space, see attached screen shot, I have tried irfanview, (www.irfanview.com) but that still shown a blank DVD, can anybody help me please get back these photos, son is getting married soon and his best man would like lots of photos of him as a child, plus they are special memories, all help and advice apreciated.
https://i.postimg.cc/63wMx9Y5/Capture.jpg

 

[13thmonkey]

Can you try a different drive?

 

[USAFRet]

Copy the data to a folder on the laptop.
See what happens.

 

[13thmonkey]

Copy the data to a folder on the laptop.
See what happens.

Looks to me like the OS thinks the disk is empty, 0 out of 0 bytes used.

 

[USAFRet]

Looks to me like the OS thinks the disk is empty, 0 out of 0 bytes used.

Me = dummy.
I didn't look at the screenshot.

 

[13thmonkey]

Me = dummy.
I didn't look at the screenshot.

Thoughts on whether the reader is just not able to read it? a dual layer, +/- R/RW issue? I'd have thought a modernish drive would read everything.

@conrail can you show us a photo of the disk? Wondering if it's a DVD Ram disk or something odd like that.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, try a different DVD drive. I've seen some instances where a DVD will not read in Drive A, but will read in Drive B.

But...a DVD from years ago? I've had about a 50% fail rate from movies burned to DVD 5 yrs ago and earlier.

 

[AllanGH]

The potential here is for a problem with the storage medium.

If the disc is R/W media, then you should be fine to try different drives to achieve access to the media...probably just a compatibility issue.

If the disc is R +/-, and is organic dye layer storage, then you are entering the realm of stable storage lifetime; which is problematic after 5 to 10 years of storage time.

Some of the more "economical" brands of recording media were not labeled which means you have to examine the recording side to tell.
If the recording side of the disc has a greyish appearance, it's likely R/W media, and you're ok. Storage lifetime is on the order of 45 years, according to accelerated aging tests.

If the recording side of the disc is a bluish-green sort of colour, then you're dealing with organic dye layer storage media; and, anything stored more than 5 years ago--particularly if it hasn't been stored in a temperature controlled environment--is probably only good for use as a coaster by now.

 

[13thmonkey]

The potential here is for a problem with the storage medium.

If the disc is R/W media, then you should be fine to try different drives to achieve access to the media...probably just a compatibility issue.

If the disc is R +/-, and is organic dye layer storage, then you are entering the realm of stable storage lifetime; which is problematic after 5 to 10 years of storage time.

Some of the more "economical" brands of recording media were not labeled which means you have to examine the recording side to tell.
If the recording side of the disc has a greyish appearance, it's likely R/W media, and you're ok. Storage lifetime is on the order of 45 years, according to accelerated aging tests.

If the recording side of the disc is a bluish-green sort of colour, then you're dealing with organic dye layer storage media; and, anything stored more than 5 years ago--particularly if it hasn't been stored in a temperature controlled environment--is probably only good for use as a coaster by now.

I'm surprised that the failure mode is 0/0 and not just corrupted when you attempt to read, it's an error in a very specific location to do that.

 

[conrail]

Can you try a different drive?

thanks for suggestion, tried different laptop with built in drive, same result

 

[conrail]

The potential here is for a problem with the storage medium.

If the disc is R/W media, then you should be fine to try different drives to achieve access to the media...probably just a compatibility issue.

If the disc is R +/-, and is organic dye layer storage, then you are entering the realm of stable storage lifetime; which is problematic after 5 to 10 years of storage time.

Some of the more "economical" brands of recording media were not labeled which means you have to examine the recording side to tell.
If the recording side of the disc has a greyish appearance, it's likely R/W media, and you're ok. Storage lifetime is on the order of 45 years, according to accelerated aging tests.

If the recording side of the disc is a bluish-green sort of colour, then you're dealing with organic dye layer storage media; and, anything stored more than 5 years ago--particularly if it hasn't been stored in a temperature controlled environment--is probably only good for use as a coaster by now.

thanks for reply, discs are from same batch, 120 mins/4.7Gb Panasonic DVD+R 1 x16x

 

[conrail]

thanks for reply, discs are from same batch, 120 mins/4.7Gb Panasonic DVD+R 1 x16x.
I have tried a HP laptop also running window 10 home with build in DVD drive

 

[AllanGH]

I'm surprised that the failure mode is 0/0 and not just corrupted when you attempt to read...

I pitched all of my organic dye layer media when crystalline phase transition (R/W) media hit the streets, so I can't say what the most common failure symptoms would be. Anything is possible, of course, but I would assume that organic media would be early unreadable due to the loss of the TOC and data tracking integrity; and would eventually go to all 0's or all 1's for complete loss of the disc contents.

 

[AllanGH]

...discs are from same batch, 120 mins/4.7Gb Panasonic DVD+R 1 x16x

DVD+R was developed back in 2002, and the medium type wasn't officially adopted until 2008. Early releases certainly weren't certified at a 16x write speed (8X is more likely, but this is in the dim reaches of my memory for something that I ignored for the most part), so that probably pushes the date of those DVDs back a little, too.

Still, you are beyond the customary 5-year mark for stable storage on the media.

 

[conrail]

Still, you are beyond the customary 5-year mark for stable storage on the media.

thanks Allan, so out of warraty then? lol, didn't realise there was a shelf life, going to give wonderare recoverit a go, I have tried recovva but that failed, looks like I may have to give it up as a bad job, many thanks to all who offered help, advice and solutions, I appreciate your time, again many thanks

 

[AllanGH]

I do hope that there are other parallel sources to get those photos back.

My wife has a drive that she believes are the ONLY place where all the family photos are stored...from pre-1993-on. Out of pure paranoia, I have those backed-up on 4 different HDDs, right now...mainly because my wife has said (several times) that, if I ever "lose" her photos, I'm a dead man.