Professional Burst-CD Recovery With Truman's CD Tool

note: I wanna mention this Program explicit, because without it never would have been possible and I really have to say ThanX 2 Truman for getting back alot of important data! Of course I hope he will develope and update that jewel of software further on, because its really valuable.




Here now the story begins, incl. the How To Do / FAQ / TUT:
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**********************************************
* Recovery of "Halfway bursted CD's" with Trumans CD Tool *
**********************************************


We're talking about THE WORST CASE EVER, which has happened to me around 2 Weeks ago.
I tried to clean one of my 'every 5 months' mixed stuff CD-Rs, holding it flat in my hand, using a little bit too much pressure and that cheap plastic thingy all of a sudden got 2 small cracks, beginning at the center ring!


Unfortunatly that CD-R already had 2 undependent data sessions, and session 2 track had been written very weak additional! Session1 was just an experimental PSX track, around 30MB in size, forgetable, but Session2 contained all my "Software 20" data stuff - ca. 640 MB !


One of the cracks for luck ended around 3mm before the Session2 beguns, but the second one reached already ca. 5 millimeters into Session2.


How funny, no single one of my 4 CD Drives could "boot" up that CD-R any longer !!
Thats because such a physical crack misplaces and distorts the micromillimeter thin spiral trails of the burned pits! And if the CD-R is written very weak, that problem is much more sufficient, 'cause then theres alot few contrast like on any pressed CD or good contrast CD-R.


btw. if that crack would have been from the outside, its alot less hassle, you still can read everything until that crack starts.



So what to do now??!!! Getting desperate? Not me! ;-)

But:
If you ever should have such damned situation, which I dont whish my biggest enemy, you only have a chance (when you dont wanna spend thousands of bucks giving that CD away to some prof. Recovery-Company) if you own a CD Drive which supports 1x CD-reading speed! Unfortunatly as 'good' as all uptodates drives lowest reading speed is 4x. So always take care or buy at least one old 1x speed drive, sometimes it could became extremly valuable for ya!


Secondly, you have to open that drive, reconnect it with the PC, IDE etc cables and place it outside of your tower, desktop etc. Because you'll need to swap a recognisable CD with that "cracked" one.



Now lets start recovering that "Nearly frisbee" until its in one piece!
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Install the following programs:
--------------------------------

* Truman's CD Tool 1.2beta8
* Isobuster
* Hedit or any other Hexeditor
* CD Image Converter 1.10


First of all you have to find a CD-R (or pressed CD) which has the similar "quality" like your broken one, if you have some CD-R with almost invisible track, use a CD-R where the track also has been written very weak. Thats because the 1x drives laser has to calibrate the best performance reading the track.


Insert that recognisable CD into your 1x speed drive, press "tray closed" button and start Truman's CD Tool aka Truman's CD Reader and select your 1x CDdrive. Press the "view sectors" button and select '1x read speed'. Leave that window as it is, and start Trumans CD Tool a second time, now hit "CD to image" button.

Now you need to know where your recoverable session starts. Usual just input (LBA) 0 which is already default and press read sector, but if its a multisession disc you must check out that start LBA first.


In my case it has been LBA 31010. Now let Trumans Tool read that sector from the good CD, after it wait until the drive has stopped spinning, and now swap the good with the "half broken" CD.


Important: Look that the crack is very plain, if you feel any edges with your fingertips press very softly until theres no fealable crack anylonger on the surface, and clean the disc very softly without using any big pressure (make no scratches), so that crack doesnt start to expand!



Now press the "Read Sector" button again. The laser already is positioned at the fitting position, so it wont recalibrate the whole CD and you can read that sector. You also should set the "Transfer erraneous block (ECC on)" box to Yes.


!! Thats the first step to success, you now are able to read your bursted CD again!


If the crack alread is too big, try on a more outside/higher LBA position. But beware, its very important that you are able to read at least fragments of the CD's "boot" or in our case FAT (File Allocation Table) region, otherwise probably you wont have any clues which files that CD-R contents and where they are located!


Usually there are 2 different FAT's, the usual used Joliet with 64byte long filenames and the 'old' ISO9660 which has 8byte long "DOS" file names. For luck this raises the chance you'll find at least in one of that 2 FATs some needed file location and file lenght info's!


In my case I could read approx. 8 out of 10 sectors. Thats whole 80%, and because of the 2 different FATs, I had good recovery chances. If you cant read that FAT (the ca. first 500 sectors of your data track) at all, you still can recover the good part of the CD-R (yet unreached by the burst), but its getting much more work, because then you have to find out and extract the files with much more expenditure - about that see the annex.


My next step was Truman's "CD to image" option. Of course select 1x (with any higer speed I woulnt have had the smallest chance reading over that crack!!) and also select "Transfer erraneous block (ECC on)". If that box is not checked, the program will halt at the 1st unreadable sector!

(Further settings: No subs, CDmode filter any type, retry error count: 10)


Then I inserted the 'LBA From - To values' (31008 - 380000 , lets see how far it goes ;-) and let read the drive the whole night through. btw I was very glad Trumans program suppported my old 1x-2x Mitsumi 2801 TE (manufactured 1998) that fantastic, even it has not the newest "RAW" standards. Thx again!


The next day I was happy to see a nice result, a big 2352bytes per sector ISO (.IMG) file, size ca. 700 MB! A first look by the hexeditor showed me, that alot FAT sectors luckily had been readen correctly, however, the most of the sectors from LBA 32000-50000 had been zeroed, seems they were completly unreadable. But at least the sectors frames did match, in explanation, I got the correct space those sectors would have needed (the correct amount of sectors matching with the sector headers LBA values).



But my next big poblem was the "multisession factor". If you burn such Session2 Iso "fresh from the start", none of the FAT values wont match any longer! (because they use the "plus session1 lba" values)


So I had to pad that Session2 ISO with additional 31010 sectors of the formerly Session 1. I simply extracted sectors 0 to 31009 from my newest "Software 21" CD-R with ISObuster.


After this I inserted the same amount of bytes this 2352 CDsegment.bin had, at 0x00 into the recovered.bin and copy/pasted the 'working but false' Software21 FAT into it also!


Because the Software 20's FAT was totally f*ed up, I had to find a way to recover at least the good parts of that corrupted FAT! And I really found a method!


But first I did convert or better CUTTED that now complete ca. 740 MB large 2352 bin into a 2048 standard ISO. Because I couldnt need that corrupt file headers and ECCs anylonger, they only would lead to reading errors later if the ISO gets opened by ISObuster etc.


So a little later I had that same recovered ISO in 2048 format on my second harddrive. I copied that back to C:\ for having a backup, because now I began playing with the inplanted "false but working" FAT.


First I tried copying the corrupt FAT over the good Software 21 FAT with Hedit, but if you open it with ISObuster, you'll get errors without end.
(btw ISObuster was the only program which opens at all such "crazy FAT ISOs")


For luck a few tries later I found a way:
------------------------------------------
Leave the good 'folder FAT sectors' as they are, just manipulate the 'file FAT sectors'. Thats not so complicated as it sounds:


Check the ISO with a hexeditor from the beginning and look around LBA 50-200 where the Joliet 'folder FAT sectors' ends and the file FAT sectors start.

Now simply use the first file sector and overwrite it with one of the recovered file sectors! Save the ISO, reopen it with ISObuster, and in some of the (good CD's Joliet FAT, the blue one) folders you'll find all the files of that special one of your recovered FAT sectors you pasted in just before!



In my case the Joliet FAT "first files" sector was located at:
0x1D000 into the 2048 ISO.

That sectors always starts with 0x22, so you have some orientation if you copy and paste the "recovered FAT sectors". I recommend you extract the complete corrupt FAT of the recovered CD in 2352 format into an extra file, so you have better overview where you are etc and dont have to move around alot.


I really did repeat that process around 50 times, copied/pasted one of the recovered FAT Joliet sectors, after it opened with ISObuster again & again, and extracted/saved the always new found files. Because I did pad the Session2 as described above, all the FATs LBA values matched perfectly again and so I really got all the files recovered, as long as they have been located between the "uncracked" positions LBA 55000 - LBA 360000.


But because alot Joliet FAT sectors had been lost, I did the same process with the ISO9660 File Allocation Table. The ISO9660 FAT starts directly after the Joliet file FAT, the same again, first all the folders info (leave the good folders as they are otherwise ISObuster gets crazy) and after it the ISO9660 file location FAT sectors.


First I also patched it with the single sectors method, this time at the positions: 0x150800 and 0x151000.
But then I made a second backup of the whole ISO and tried to patch the complete recovered ca. 200 ISO9660 file sectors from that location on into the ISO!


And I was really lucky, after opening the ISO9660 FAT of that ISO with ISObuster (the red one), somewhere in the "second CDs good folders" I found all the lost files again like Phoenix from the Ashes!


And I could extract all that files without almost any complications, but this time around 30% more of them than before, because the recovered ISO9660 FAT sectors havent been that corrupt compared with the Joliet sectors. This times only with 8.3 filenames, but better a short filename and the file at least as no file at all.


And: On that CD-R for luck I saved an unimportant backup.zip file of 264MB size, located form LBA 52000-185000, so at least I only lost ca. 40MB, those ca. from LBA 32000-52000.



It was a hard work, believe me, I guess ca. 50 hours all in all, but now at least I was successfully, and I really hope, sometimes that FAQ can and will help someone !! So the extrem expenditure wasnt for nothing. Now I have time for the PSX again! *egggg*


CU, Sam





Annex A: CD recovering without FAT
Annex B: Info how the FAT handles File Info
Annex C: Software Links and pictures
Annex D: CD-Tool Improvement suggestion




Annex A, CD recovering without FAT
------------------------------------

If no FAT sectors at the beginning of the CD (near the center position) are recoverable any longer, just the "RAW" data sectors:
In that case you must extract the readable sectors the same way as described above, save it with Truman's CD Tool and at 1x speed as 2352 binary, and convert it to 2048.

Now you have to find out per Hexeditor where a file starts and where it ends.
Thats easy, because you just have to look for alot 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00s.
And they 00 00 00 00 00s have to fit into a 2048 frame.

In Explanation: If we have some gif file, which size is 2000 bytes:
Logically, you'll get after the end of this file fourtyeight "00"s.
After that zeroes the next file directly will start.
Just select with your hexeditor (starting at the beginn with your recovered 2048 raw is - that without FAT) the data region until you came to an area with many 00s, halt the select process directly before the new "not 00 sequence" starts. Now look at the size of your selected bytes, and if they are devidable with 2048, you have found one seperate file. So now copy and paste that data into an extra file, evtl. delete the superfluous 00s at the end and save it.
Now you only need to know what kind of file it is!!

Thats quite easy if its a doc, htm or txt but can became complicated if its a special format. But you can trial and error simply different extensions, like jpg, exe, pdf etc. its a zip, the file will start with 0x504B (PK) and so alot files have there recognisable file-headers. You just have to know what you're searching for! Perhaps first make a litte internet-investigation about file-headers if you have special files located, like all those different mp* files etc.



Annex B: A short explanation how the FAT handles File Info:
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Usual data CD (1Session 700MB) example:

recover.htm = MSF 00:54:05 = LBA 3905 = 0x0F41

This and every files LBA value starts being written exactly
25 Bytes before the name (in this case RECOVER.HTM)
in the CDs Joliet file allocation table and also
ISO9660 FAT!

(if the file is on a very high LBA, it can start
26 Bytes before the name, otherwise theres a 0x00)

23 Bytes before the files name is located, we find
the files size in reversed order, as example here:

E0 24 = 57380 bytes filesize of RECOVER.HTM


whole sequence (hex):
0F 41 24 E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | .A$...............
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 52 45 43 4F 56 45 52 2E 48 54 4D | .......RECOVER.HTM




Annex C: Software Links and pictures:
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Truman's professional CD Reading and writing Tool
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http://www.xcdtool.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk


Isobuster
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www.smart-projects.net/isobuster


Hedit (very fast Hexeditor with 2352 hex frame set)
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www.yurisw.com/hedit


CD Image Converter 1.10
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http://web.tiscali.it/no-redirect-ti...load_tools.htm


Some "recovered" pictures and snaps
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http://the8ball.50megs.com/recovery.htm




Annex D: Improvement suggestion for Truman
---------------------------------------------
Please can you change the "View Sectors hex binary window" that style so its possible to copy the real binary sectors data instead of the momently special ASCII representation of the single hex 0-F characters? Often its possible to read a corrupt sector moving back-forward a few times, then it would be good if someone could recover (copy/paste) that sector's data in the original binary form.

GOD bless you sam , you are too inteligent for our weak minds man !!!
How the hell did you tought about all this way of recovering data and also about youre talents with the psx protection !!!
I tought i was good in computers !!! now i know that i am an novice !!!
AVE to all lighted up minds on this forum!! BALME , truman etc...

[just an answer, therefore evtl. offtopic: delete it and also the above offtopic post if wanted ;-]


Death-heaven, your blessings are lovely, but keep that term 'G0D' out of the game. Just look at all those recent 50.000 dead people, including innocent children in Iran, not being warned from anybody! I know, would have been far too much work, for all those "Sleeping-pill-gods", and they are much to stupid looking a few days into the future. :-(
So help yourself!, 'cause all those pretty f*d gods do help noone!

Nevertheless thank you for honouring our talents and work, but keep in mind everyone has his own different weaks and strenghts, you too, so dont make yourself down and dont try to make anybody too much self-satisfied or proud.

Although, I must confess, I'm a little bit proud of finding out almost all the needed recovering stuff in this case totally by me self, and shure it feels fine and I'm enjoy'n it. ;-)
But still its just the result of hard work, high motivation and absolute ambition!
btw,that CD-R anyway was just a trace/glance away getting broken in cute tiny little pieces!, after that burst did happened, 'cause sometimes I'm very high-spirited, without any consideration for any losses.

Of course, in most cases, such behaviour - meant is: not searching for additional help, is plain stupidity or lazyness! But sometimes you also have to fight and rely on your own abilities!

btw I'm glad I was that successful with this task, so at least I have another argument against all those know-alls, who could call me (or us? ;-) crazy for wanna cracking the "Inpossible PSX Protection" that "hardcore-style" and with so much expenditure! *eggg* ;-)


CU, Sam

U are right sam !! SORY

Be forewarned before trying this: You run a good chance of causing irreparable damage to your CD drive by trying this. Many cracked CD's won't stand up to the forces this will put them through. And I have some broken CD shards and a non-functioning AOpen to show for it.

I agree with SirDavidGuy. If you put a broken CD into a drive, you better be prepared for the worst. If you can somehow make sure that the drive never spins faster than 1X and you smooth the crack out perfectly, you might be ok.

Well Guys, dont forget we're talking here about CDs which have little cracks/bursts and not ones which already do miss a few parts/corners.


And I told you have to use just 1x speed, because for shure there could encounter some risk, caused by the gravity forces created by spinning at 4x - 50x, and the proportional raising unburden.

Therefore also its important the surface at the burst has to be very even, as I told, and of course an already heavy bended plastic-frisbee should NOT used.

Its very sad SirDavidGuy you lost the health of one of ya drives and perhaps an important disc too, but nevertheless it would be better explain exactly how this did happened (at what speed that CD spinned, in what kind of status that CD already has been, what program was used), and do not making worthful methods doubtful, which can save very important and formerly unrecoverable data for other persons in need! But of course thx warning about some evtl. additional risks.

btw. I'd like to say, it also depends on the kind of "plastic" that CD-R was made of. I recognised that nowadays alot CD-Rs are made of really absolute cheap and very! easy breakable material. As example a few weeks ago one of my, almost 50 empty CD-Rs containing, spindles from the cupboard fell to the ground, and almost all of them had got a burst from the inside out! Yes, really, just laugh, I throw them all away, those cheap 30cent $*Ny "Fall apart CD-R" frisbees! I dont care about such small losses!


BUT, Even if I doubt alot people will read this thread (you can see it on the page visited counter) AND have the problem of an insideout-oncracked CD, AND additonal that same people really are able doing the described hardware swap, heres another security-instruction:


Download and install CD-Brake first. Here you'll get it:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Soft...Rom%20Related)


Now set all drives first to 1x Audio and 1x Data reading speed


Nevertheless, using Trumans CD Tool the way I described, the cracked CD will spin already at 1x after swap anyway, but that way with CD-Brake everyone has a second security.


Not to forget, sometimes the possibility of recovering important data is more worth than the risk of distroying an old CD-drive. Of course the problem is, that if its already that far the drive (perhaps the motor) or the laser (by a very slingering CD) get damaged, the often more important CD also gets destroyed. OK, that old 1x to 8x (mostly used) CD drives nowadays dont cost the world!


If that CD doesnt just has small cracks but contains already much bigger characteristics of destruction, for shure there is a higher risk.

btw. even as all my 4 drives the first time tried to boot that "broken" CD-R of mine, where it spinned for shure alot higher than 1x speed, nothing bad did happened, even the crack didnt expand.
I didnt had described it, but I started the first time reading the bursted CD-R by ISObusters "extract sectors from - to-" feature, which doesnt set the CD in 1x but ca. in 2x-4x speed, and also nothing bad did happened (only "just" nothing was readable).


But now with all those learned and teached precautions, I hope you all are able for doing directly the hardwareswap, and put that CD directly in 1x speed mode, made possible by Trumans CD Tool.


But wait:
Here you get a short explanation how making you drive hardwareswappable:


WARINING:
Even if the laser is set to OFF when the CD already has stopped spinning, AND also usually is covered by the CD anyway, DONT look directly into the laser!

Keep the angle around 30-50 degrees (the laser beams directly vertical) and your eyes 1meter away from the laser, especially if you can see a very little red light! Dont look straight into that "weak" red laser light, because you can see only about 5% of the energy it radiates, the most power is in at invisible specter/spectrum!

Anyway, I dont recommend sunglasses, because perhaps with them you would see only the half.



* get an old CD drive which supports 1x speed if you dont have any
* unscrew the 4 bottom swrews of this drive, remove both metal covers
* remove the drive front plastics
* put the bottom lid/cover back under the drive
* put drive onto a small platform infront of PC
* open PC
* connect 1x drive as usual, but still opened
* look out for something round (a little roll)
* boot up PC
* start CD-Breake, set it to 1x
* start Trumans CD-Tool
* press now uncovered 'open tray' - button
* put good CD on tray and press tray button again


**
Now the crucial part begins:
Directly after the CD is moved over the motors holder, press it very softly but not too soft onto the little "platform", using you fingers or a small roll (preffered if the CD spins faster than 10x otherwise your fingernails could start to smoke ;-)

***
Anyway, as described in the first thread, the CD just will spin at 1x, and in my case (but dont compare this with the behavior of different drives), even at 8x, you can remove your fingers or the little Tesa-roll etc, and the CD still will spin fine, without flying through the room like a shot frisbee!

****
But "dont try this at home" *ggg*, so as a precaution leave your fingers slightly holding the CD, and wait ca. 30seconds to 1min until the good CD stops spinning (drives switches automatically into "standby")


*****
Remove good CD, Xchange it with "bad" CD, press slightly so the CD fits 'plain' and even the same way like the previous CD did before, keep your fingers or the roll softly on the surfaces centre while you press Trumans Tool "read sector" button again. "Cracked" CD now will spin and read "just fine".

******
Prefered, if you have to read alot sectors, you also can try putting the CD-Drive metal-tin-cover back on its original place after swapping the DisX, 'cause usual that "inbuilt" magnetical holder now will do the same job, even better, as your fingers or "press on" equip. did before!




---------------------
Of course, if someone has an extremly broken disc, scan it or make a digipix of it first, put it up on a website and ask US here if its a high risk for recovering it at all / wasting alot money sending it to some expensive Data-Recovery-Company.


If theres already a big piece of plastic at the out- or inside missing, for shure, but not if theres just a small burst which doesnt harm the original shape of the CD at all. ;-)


CU, Sam

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Last edited by Sam123456789; 14-01-2004 at 08:05.

hey sam do u think that "litle small red light" can burn youre retina ??
i tought it was weak enough !!!
Sometime i look to it when i test cd-players and such things but from a respectable distance and not directly at 90degree

death-heaven, you saw the weak dispersion-shine (theres no secret, invisible and deadly killer-radiation hidden in it! *eg*), comparable with a powerful flashlight, which beams a very bright lightstream.

Its a big difference if you look directly into it or if a friend of you points with this lamp somewhere else and you bystand the whole from aside and just watch the weak side-reflections of where the light comes out.

Additional: I wont bet my leather-pants on it *ggg*, but I'm shure someone also would feel it immediatly if some harmful hits his eyes (like the bewitching evil glare of someone *eg*). Just perhaps then already its too late! *veg*
But:
Just a few days ago, as I melted together that CDburners plastic holder, some of that burned syntetic-material smoke got in my eyes and it hurts all of a sudden like hell. Dont panic, my eyes are still in one piece! Same if you look directly into the sun. So, death-heaven, dont make yourself paranoid, but always be careful.


Of course if you wanna tattoo some nice everlasting pattern in your retina, just look straight into the CDdrives lens from the near range of 5mm! and enjoy your very own brilliant Laser-Show ;-)
Dont get confused, perhaps it was just the LED ;-)

! Attention, Warning, Caution - Joke Alert:
DONT do it, not at home nor in any little tree-hut! ;-)
(its ridiculous nowadays every time you have to say that extra, but there are too many risk-enjoying crazy kids out there which could took everything for granted)



CU, Sam


btw, here are the "really not funny" *vegggg*
original safety notes of my very new
LITE-ON DVD+RW LDW-401S



----------------------------------
Safety notice:

A
"Caution --- use of controls or adjustments
or performance of procedures other than those
specified herein may result in hazardous
radiation expousure."

B
To prevent electrical shock or fire, do not
attempt to disassemble this unit and do not
expose it to moisture of any kind, e.g., rain,
liquid spills.

C
To prevent exposure to laser emanations
(harmful to human eyes), do not attempt to
disasseble this unit.

D
Hold (CD) by their edges. Do not touch the
surface of the discs.

E
The drive is designed to be incorporated into a
computer based system or unit which has an
enclosing cover. Use the drive alone or in any
other configuration is prohibited.

7819500097
--------------------------------------


(for the moment I wont open it anyway,
dont wanna lose the warranty, but later... who knows.... ;-)

hey guys if u want VERY old cd-rom models but new (never used) for sale for cool prices look here :
http://www.microsalvage.com/cat40.htm