I’m trying to recover data (jpgs mostly) from ~8 yr old CDR’s that have apparently degraded. Trying to mount them I get a Hal.Device.Volume.UnknownFailure: error on 2 different computers. Can anyone recommend a technique or app to pull whatever data is salvageable off of them? I’m new to OpenSUSE but not to Linux in general and I don’t mind getting down to the terminal or compiling apps so it doesn’t have to be point and click. Thanks!
Leo
You could try to copy off the image to ISO files using ddrescue (search for it), and then do whatever forensics are needed on the ISO file. It’s pretty grim though if the directory on the CD is not readable.
You could try photorec. I’ve used it to successfully recover accidentally deleted photos from my harddrive.
This is the description from the photorec man page.
“PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video,
documents and archives from Hard Disks and CDRom and lost pictures (Photo Recovery) from digi‐
tal camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the filesystem and goes after the underlying data, so
it’ll work even if your media’s filesystem is severely damaged or formatted. PhotoRec is safe
to use, it will never attempt to write to the drive or memory support you are about to recover
lost data from.”
I recommend a look at dvdisaster. It’s a complete toolset to recover and protect cds/dvds and has a nice gui (if you can stand not getting your hands dirty at the terminal ;))