Burned data backups on DVD-R, now same drive won't read the files?

Paulie

Diamond Member
May 19, 2007
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Reformatted my hard drive yesterday and restored the factory image. Spent all this time making data backups to DVD-R's, and now the same drive that burned the fucking things won't read the files to allow me to copy back to the hard drive.

Luckily it only happened to the ones that weren't all that important, but I don't get why it would write to the DVD but not be able to read it. It makes no sense.

It shows the files in an explorer window and all, but it won't let me open them or copy them to the HD.

Are these lost forever, or would a different drive maybe be able to read them?
 
The DVD's were a -R? Copy them to a +R and try again. If not get an external DVD and try installing them from that.
 
Why are you messing with that? Why not use an external hard drive? MUCH easier and you can buy them fairly cheap. As cheap as a few DVDs thats for sure.
 
Why are you messing with that? Why not use an external hard drive? MUCH easier and you can buy them fairly cheap. As cheap as a few DVDs thats for sure.

Because I already have a bunch of blank dvd's and i've done it like this before.

I figured it out though. I used 2 different methods to burn, and the first method was the one which the dvd's aren't reading. It's reading the dvd's from the 2nd method just fine.

It's mostly just a bunch of sesame street movie files I downloaded for my son, and some other crap that I can just download again.

My important stuff luckily happened to be in the round of good ones.
 
Why are you messing with that? Why not use an external hard drive? MUCH easier and you can buy them fairly cheap. As cheap as a few DVDs thats for sure.

Because I already have a bunch of blank dvd's and i've done it like this before.

I figured it out though. I used 2 different methods to burn, and the first method was the one which the dvd's aren't reading. It's reading the dvd's from the 2nd method just fine.

It's mostly just a bunch of sesame street movie files I downloaded for my son, and some other crap that I can just download again.

My important stuff luckily happened to be in the round of good ones.

Ok glad you figured it out, but seriously, I'd invest $50 in an external HD, or for like $80 you can buy a 1TB deal. THey work great, you can do auto backups on them, and they are MUCH faster and convenient than DVDs
 
Reformatted my hard drive yesterday and restored the factory image. Spent all this time making data backups to DVD-R's, and now the same drive that burned the fucking things won't read the files to allow me to copy back to the hard drive.

Luckily it only happened to the ones that weren't all that important, but I don't get why it would write to the DVD but not be able to read it. It makes no sense.

It shows the files in an explorer window and all, but it won't let me open them or copy them to the HD.

Are these lost forever, or would a different drive maybe be able to read them?

OH MAN!!! I'm glad I'm not you!

I hope that helps.
 
Why are you messing with that? Why not use an external hard drive? MUCH easier and you can buy them fairly cheap. As cheap as a few DVDs thats for sure.

Because I already have a bunch of blank dvd's and i've done it like this before.

I figured it out though. I used 2 different methods to burn, and the first method was the one which the dvd's aren't reading. It's reading the dvd's from the 2nd method just fine.

It's mostly just a bunch of sesame street movie files I downloaded for my son, and some other crap that I can just download again.

My important stuff luckily happened to be in the round of good ones.

Ok glad you figured it out, but seriously, I'd invest $50 in an external HD, or for like $80 you can buy a 1TB deal. THey work great, you can do auto backups on them, and they are MUCH faster and convenient than DVDs

I beg to agree.

I like my backup drive as it runs quietly and backs everything up everytime I plug into it.
 
Why are you messing with that? Why not use an external hard drive? MUCH easier and you can buy them fairly cheap. As cheap as a few DVDs thats for sure.

Because I already have a bunch of blank dvd's and i've done it like this before.

I figured it out though. I used 2 different methods to burn, and the first method was the one which the dvd's aren't reading. It's reading the dvd's from the 2nd method just fine.

It's mostly just a bunch of sesame street movie files I downloaded for my son, and some other crap that I can just download again.

My important stuff luckily happened to be in the round of good ones.

Ok glad you figured it out, but seriously, I'd invest $50 in an external HD, or for like $80 you can buy a 1TB deal. THey work great, you can do auto backups on them, and they are MUCH faster and convenient than DVDs

A friggin 10GB flash drive for $15 would have been all I needed, but I was impatient and lazy.

And now Xotoxi's glad he's not me, even though I still have a large penis and very rarely get diarrhea.
 

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