DVD-R Failing over time - which media? recovery?

I currently have a number of DVD-R that are becoming unreadable. This is NOT good!

My writer is a Pionner-A05. Currently it's living in a Firewire enclosure but many of these disks were created before moving the drive to the enclosure. I've tried reading the failing disks in a number of drives and they all have problems. (I'll post media manufacturer ID's shortly)

My questions are:
- What is a reliable DVD-R media that I won't regret using in a few months?
- Is there any software out there that may be able to recover the data on my failing disks? Even just all the readable files (Windows stops copying after finding one bad file)

Media Manufacturer code is VDSPMSAB 01

I believe that these were sold as FORTIS 4x, but they are not labelled.

Firmware on my Burner is 1.33 with a 2meg buffer.

Also, is there any way to determine the manufacturer of a DVD-R before purchase? My local retailer has Ritek in stock, but this could be made by a number of manufacturers.

Have you stamped labels on these discs by any chance? I had the same thing happen to me when I used labels. Read here that labels were a bad Idea and stopped using them. Haven't had a disc go bad over time since.

I use Ridata Model#: DRD-474-RDCB501

Unfortunately not, but some brands never change the manufacturer, e.g. Verbatim DataLifePlus = Mistubishi Chemicals media (the "plus" is important), which is of high quality usually. Or Verbatim Pastel (coloured discs), which are Taiyo Yuden, the best media there is. A good hint for quality media is a "Made in Japan" label somewhere on the package, because most media being produced in Japan is from Taiyo Yuden nowadays, and the other Japanese manufacturers produce high quality as well.

Ritek is the biggest manufacturer of optical media in the world, and I highly doubt that your retailer will sell you anything else if he says Ritek, since Ritek media is not expensive either. Ritek G05s (Ritek 8x DVD-R) are a very good choice, the quality of the other Ritek media depends on the batch often.

Edit: Europeans can check out this German site btw.: http://www.instantinfo.de/index_dvdrohlinge.php (German only unfortunately). Here you can choose the manufacturer (under "Hersteller"), and click on "Anzeigen" to list all brands (with pictures) of the media from that manufacturer. The list far from being complete though, and less useful to North American or Asian people, since you guys have different brands over there.

I experienced same shit with same media sold as Multidisc, and a friend with Creation discs so I never buy anymore such discs; moreover we warned the supplier and it seems he stopped importing these lousy media. None of the other DVDs has suffered this problem, from the worst Princo to great TY. There is no way you can recover the data - personally I tried with partial succes a BTC 1108 drive who proved best reading capabilities among other drives like NEC, Pioneer, Toshiba, Plextor or Asus.

DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN

The reviews show that Kodak is decent... They are a reputable company that I have known of for years... Price is OK... So I buy a spindle of 50. I get home, stick one in the drive AND THEY'RE EXACTLY THE SAME MANUFACTURER!!!!

DAMN does this suck!!!! BACK TO THE STORE I GO!

I assume that BENQ is another DVD-R brand to avoid???

No idea what the manufacturer code is until I buy and bring home.

According to instantinfo.de, they are original Sony. But that doesn't have to mean anything, since Sony produces their own media for the European market (and only for the Euro market) in Austria. If they are original Sony, they are good.

I suggest you to buy a few samples from different brands and try them out.

The BenQ are indeed SONY04D1. 50 for $25.

Also grabbed a 10 pack of Maxell for $15 and they ended up being TYG01... Wish I had known that before I bought them. I would have grabbed two.

Just because 1 pack of maxells is TY doesn't mean that all of them are. If they came from seperate batches they could easily be manufactured by two different companies. Maxell is all over the place with who they use so consider yourself lucky. It is for this very reason that I don't recommend buying anything but the manufacturers' own label. When you buy Ritek DVD-R, you always know who is making the discs, ect. This doesn't mean that you won't get a bad batch from time to time but at least you won't be paying premium prices for name brand medias who simply whore themselves out to whoever will give them the best deal at the time.

***newbie question alert*** ok, what program is best for detecting the type of dvd media you have?

Dvdinfopro will tell you the media code.