Can't see data on a DVD-RW ! Please help!

[Icaro]

Hi. I just came back from a baseball trip in Cuba. We had a local photographer that took tons of pictures. She burned a DVD-RW with all the pictures that played fine in the hotel's DVD player (a regular TV DVD player that plays movies). I just came back to Canada and now my computer won't recognize it. Same thing for my movies DVD player (TV)... Same with situation with a second computer... Windows Explorer shows an empty folder, and properties indicate 0 kb used, 0 kb of free space and file system is RAW... What the hell?? Please help!! I really need these pictures....

Thanks!

[DB83]

I would have suggest that the data was burnt with InCD (Nero packet-writing) but I doubt that a DVd-player could actually read that.

Try isobuster to see if there really is anything on the disk.

[jman98]

Some possibilities...
1) The discs is not finalized.
2) The disc is finalized, but for some reason she burned it to UDF format and you have an older version of Windows (XP or lower) that does not understand that UDF format.
3) The disc WAS fine, but it got damaged in transit.

DB83's suggestion is good. #2 in my list is highly unlikely, but unlikely does not mean impossible.

[Icaro]

Thanks for the quick response!

I've searching all over the web about this but so far nothing.... kind of desperate now lol !!

Anyways, I've tried Isobuster and it tells me that it's a blank DVD-R ... no data, but i'm sur there is data because like I said, I saw the pictures on an old DVD player in Cuba. Could it be PAL or region settings? I know they use NTSC region 4 over there. But It's not a movie, just data, jpeg I suppose... By the way, the DVD has no signs of damage at all... I really don't know what else to do...

Thanks.

[lowellriggsiam]

If you examine the bottom of the dvd does it show the discoloration that normally comes with a DVD that has writting on it?

[Icaro]

Yeah, I can clearly see a discoloration . I even see 3 shades of circles on the disc.

[lowellriggsiam]

Intrequing. I have to wonder at this point if scanning equiptment used by the airlines could somehow have erased data from an RW disc. You are positive that it is the same disc?

[Icaro]

I'm pretty sure it's the same disc.

[jman98]

There's some product that is similar to Isobuster but sometimes has better success. Hopefully someone will post with the name and you can try it.

Do note that DVD+/-RW discs are terrible for anything but short term storage and you just got a personal lesson in why. Next time demand a DVD+R or DVD-R disc. Write once discs are cheaper anyway than RW discs and they should survive airline scanning better.

Any chance she could have accidentally or deliberately given you the wrong disc? There was never a moment in which you were away from the disc and she could have switched it, either accidentally or deliberately?

[Icaro]

Everything's possible, but I don't think the disc was switched. Anyways, I really hope that she kept the pictures on her computer, so she can send me another copy... But I have to find her somewhere in Cube through the hotel staff lol

If you think of something else, please let me know.

Thanks !

[DB83]

I have a few CD-RW that I recorded many years ago that I can no longer access. I can not remember the program I used except that it was 'drag and drop' >> drag the file from explorer and it was immediatley written to the CD - it was definately not InCD (Nero) possibly an early version of Roxio - I simply can not remember.

But the point I make is that the PC can not see the disk even though I believe that the data is still there (IIRC isobuster failed as well)

Photographers are not neccessarily IT gurus when it comes to storage and she could wel be using a similar program since it 'came with the camera'

So, if you can contact her, it may only be neccessary to find out what program was used since another disk may well have the same issue if that is all she can indeed use.