InCD - lost data

[lee]

I have been using InCD 4 to store important files on CD. When it is full I burn the data to a standard CD.

When cut & pasting a file over the weekend InCD locked the whole machine & the only way to unfreeze it was to re-boot using the main on\off button.

On restarting I was dismayed to find the files on my disk gone & replaced by 1.36mb of Nero files advising me that I needed to install 'Easy Reader' to read my files as the drive could not read Mt Rainer disks. Where did the Nero files come from & what has happened to my 375mb of data?

According to Nero & Windows Explorer the disk still contains 375mb of data. I just can't access it.

Can anyone tell me what has happened & if I can still retrieve my files?

InCD works fine for 99% of the time but this type of lock up has happened before but has never appeared to have wiped out my files, just not stored the one it was burning when it locked.

I am using the current version of InCD.

Look forward to hearing from anyone who may be able to help. Thanks in advance.

[cfitz]

I believe that your files are probably still there and that what you are seeing is "failsafe" file that Nero burns on the disc in the first track using standard ISO filesystem. It is there to inform people who unknowingly place an InCD formatted disc in a system that doesn't have InCD installed that the disc does, indeed, contain data and to to tell them how to make that data readable (by installing Easy Reader).

It may be that your InCD installation was corrupted during the crash and that is why it can't read the disc. Can you read other InCD formatted discs? Can you write and read new InCD discs? If not, I would try uninstalling InCD and then doing a fresh reinstall.

cfitz

[dburg]

I believe that the UDF volume of this disc is left in an inconsistent state due to the unfortunate computer freeze.

I suggest to use the powerful isobuster to attempt to recover your data. More info at http://www.smart-projects.net/framepage.htm?http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster.htm

Notice that if you are able to reproduce the freeze, you may issue an helpful bug report by using the following steps:

1. Save all important data that resides on the test computer.
2. Please, check that you have enough hard disk free space to save memory dump. It should be at least 1Mb bigger than size of the RAM.
3. Setup Windows XP to generate a complete memory dump (in system properties, advanced tab, startup and recovery, write debugging information).
4. Reboot the PC.
5. Run RegEdit.exe
6. In the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters, find or create a DWORD value named CrashOnCtrlScroll. Double-click on the value and set its data to 1.
7. Restart your computer again.
8. Now you can cause a crash by holding the right-hand Ctrl key and pressing the Scroll Lock key twice. [Reproduce the defect and] Do it. The computer will reboot. It is normal.
9. Boot computer again and wait ~10 minutes for crash dump generation by the OS.
10. Please, do not send the information to Microsoft, i.e. press “Don’t send” button if dialog shown on the screenshot below appears.
11. Find memory.dmp file in your system root folder (for example C:\Windows).
12. Archive the memory.dmp file and upload it on an FTP server (the file will likely be huge).

I recommend against using this procedure on any production system(!).

[lee]

Thanks for the helpfull replies.

I purchased ISOBUSTER & it recovered the lost JPEG files on the disc. Unfortunately only 2% of the JPEGS were recognised as JPEG images & 50% of those were corrupted to a greater or lesser degree.

The other 98% of files were simply extracted as 'recovered files' & appear unreadable. Adding a JPEG suffix to these files has made no difference.

It is beginning to look as if these files are gone for good.

I would be please to receive futher suggestions.

The lesson to be learnt here is to use copy & paste & not cut & paste unless the data is already backed up elsewhere!

[compman]

Try CDRoller. It is made for this purpose. A free trial is available.

http://www.cdroller.com