Lost data on InCD disk

[jaybird]

Hi! Haven't participated in one of these forums before so if I'm doing anything incorrect please excuse me.

Can anybody please help. I have 12 meg of very important data locked on a CD which at one time was freely accessible but now isn’t. The CD was formatted using InCD and had a capacity of 570mb. In windows explorer the disk is showing a maximum (and full) capacity of 1.17mb and instead of displaying Nero’s INCDFS filing system it is displaying CDSF. None of the data that was placed on the disk is visible but in lieu there is a Nero message saying…… You are currently trying to read a disc in the UDF Packetwriting format.
You are seeing this message instead of the contents of the disc because your system currently does not support the UDF format. To make your System UDF compatible, we have developed a complimentary software tool, the InCD Reader. …. It then invites me to visit website to download the application. This I have done and it has been installed on my system. However, I can’t see it anywhere and if it is intended to work automatically it clearly doesn’t. I still can’t open the disk. If I have to manually activate the reader, where am I likely to locate it? If I have to activate something in windows to activate it, what? What else might be wrong? Is there anyway to change the file system of the disk back to INCDFS without destroying the data on it? If any body can help I would be extremely grateful.

System is a 1.13ghz PIII, 256mb, XP Pro, Fat32

Thanks. Jaybird

[Han]

Have you tried any recovery software, like IsoBuster?

[CCampbell]

Windows XP provides a UDF driver for Legacy formatted media. But this driver does not support discs created using the Mt. Rainer format process, or MRW.

The Message you were receiving was eluding to this fact. So if you downloaded and then installed the InCD Reader, it should then allow you to read the MRW formatted disc. There is no need to 'activate' or enable it, as it's active once you install and reboot your system.

If you still get this message when you try and read the MRW formatted disc, then we must assume that the driver failed to install properly. I would recommend trying to install it again, or if you have another system you can go to, try installing the InCD Reader there and see if you can read the disc. You do not need to install the InCD.exe program to read the disc, only the reader.

Regards,

Craig

[dodecahedron]

this topic might (or might not...) be useful
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=8434

[pranav81]

Uninstall the InCD reader & then reinstall it again.This should solve the problem of corrupt driver installation.


::Pranav::

[jaybird]

Thanks for your help guys and sorry for not having acknowledged your replies earlier. I followed the advice given, including downloading Isobuster, but I still couldn't recover the data. In the event I took the disk to our local university where it was ascertained that the problem lay with the disk not with the software. The penalty for using cheap disks I guess. However, the fellows at the Universitty reckon they can salvage a reasonable percentage of the data so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Once again thanks for your help it was very much appreciated.

Jaybird

[pranav81]

Use good discs always.Anyways,even if you use good discs nobody will warrant their data reliability.


Regards,

::Pranav::

[jaybird]

Whish poses a problem Pranav. How do we preserve data in perpetuity? Over the past forty years I've been taking photos around the world (many in India I might add) and during the past couple of years I've been scanning negs and slides and storing the images on CD's. A few months back I read of an individual who had performed a similar exercise and who, after a couple of years, found to his horror that half of the images he had burned no longer existed. I subsequently checked my images and they are still there, but for how much longer I wonder?

Regards

Jaybird

[pranav81]

Hi jaybird.I think nobody knows how to preserve data in perpetuity.I have also faced problems with CD-R's.I have a couple of HP CD-R's(Ricoh) which were burnt in 2002.I had stored the CD-R's in the jewel cases they came in.They were stored in moisture free,dark place.But I found that the data in them is now corrupt.I can see the files in IsoBuster,but cant retrieve them.This happened with good brand like HP.I have many Moser Baer's lying around.

So,I would say that the safe bet is to have multiple back up's.

BTW,when were you in India?Which places did you visit while you were here?How was your experience in India?

Regards,

::Pranav::

[jaybird]

Hi Pranav. The ancients preserved their history by carving it in stone. Maybe that's where we are heading!! Not stone perhaps but rather microscopically etched dye-free layers of metal a couple of microns thick. Who knows?

In answer to your questions, I first started travelling to India in the 70's. I was working in the Middle East at that time and my company resourced materials, technical services and manpower mainly from companies in Bombay and Bangalore. In the 80's I was based in South East Asia and again resourcing goods and services from India. In 93 I took up residence in the country as CEO of a power company. I was based in Orissa, but spent most of my time in-country legging it between Bhubaneswar, Delhi and Calcutta. The site of the power plant we were scheduled to build was in Lapanga and 75 km north was a coal mine that we had to open up to provide feedstock. I was there for two years and during that time met some really wonderful people who have remained very good friends. Sadly my involvement both with the project and with India came to an abrupt end following a coronary. As for the country, I love it. India is a country full of contradictions. A culture based on wisdom but a wisdom applied with total indifference. It is also in my blood. My family ties to India go back well over 100 years.

Perhaps we could keep this particular topic open off-board. If you are interested my email is jrichardcrow@yahoo.co.uk

Jaybird

[tazdevl]

Sorry to hear about you problem Jay. All I can say is stay away from InCD. Better to just use a CDR in normal fashion and not use Multisession either.

Taiyo Yuden, Mitsui Gold or the old school Kodak Gold CDs (can still get them on eBay on occasion) are the way to go for archival purposes. I'd also make 2 copies and store them in different locations. You could also buy a large capacity hard drive, save them to there and unplug each time after you load it up.

[pranav81]

I agree with tazdevl.Dont use packet writing for backing up important data.

Jay,I am glad that you liked India.We will definitely keep contact my e-mail.

Regards,

::Pranav::

[malaca]

For important data, try DVD-RAM.
It's even easier to use than InCD, drag and drop files in windows explorer (no need to open up Nero Burning Rom).

The only drawback is that DVD-RAM is more expensive, slower (because all writes are verified), and not all drives support the format yet.