Archiving software CDs under Win98

[dencorso]

A good test would be getting a 5-pack, burning them, then checking them every half-year for corruption and posting about it.

I just wonder whether there'll be any forums to post and drives capable of reading them, say, 100 years hence, when the test would be starting to get statistically relaiable...

[loblo]

You could also put them 10 minutes in a microwave oven every now and then as to simulate ageing I guess.

[Monroe]

... 10 minutes in the microwave ! .... good to come back here every so often to get some humor ... the icon is perfect ! ... that would be me if I saw my DVDs in the microwave!

... I have never heard of the M-disk, interesting ... probably out of my price range, can't image anyone interested in Windows 98SE and XP software 100 years from now, but there still might be "one old geezer" around somewhere trying to get on the internet with 98SE or XP.

...

Edited May 27, 2012 by duffy98

[jaclaz]

the icon is perfect ! ... that would be me if I saw my DVDs in the microwave!

CD/DVD's in the microwave is NO laughing matter.

http://raptor.physics.wisc.edu/wacky/cd/

We have attempted to place this largely colloquial area of study on a firmer scientific footing.

but hardly a desired target for scientific studies

I have always thought that most Youtube videos are produced by people with too much free time, but seemingly also respectable scientists have plenty of it.

jaclaz

[Monroe]

jaclaz ... you have the "links" to everything. I would have never guessed that someone actually did a study of putting CDs in the microwave. That icon was not a "laughing" icon ... it was meant to be a "state of shock" look. Anyway, I just bought 400 blank DVDs in the last month and then this discussion started about just how long Cds/DVDs will actually last. I've used various brands through the years but have tried to get Verbatum DVDs when I can at a reasonable price and Amazon dropped the price three times below $22 in late April and early May. They are supposed to have "long term" storage but who can say. I should be set for some time with my supply.

...

[jaclaz]

I would have never guessed that someone actually did a study of putting CDs in the microwave.

Hmmm, I doubt you have actually READ carefully the article , item #7 in the references is particularly interesting .

7. We have found wires bent into this shape useful for temporarily binding papers together. A subsequent publication on this "paper clip device" is forthcoming.

And, JFYI:

http://www.marriedtothesea.com/062810/compact-disc-research.gif

jaclaz

Edited May 27, 2012 by jaclaz

[Monroe]

Talking about DVDs and some of the better brands ... I am in no way an expert on the best DVDs to buy, just read what others have said or written through the years. I just noticed that Amazon has dropped the price on Verbatim 100 pack DVDs ... this is the Verbatim 95098 product ... Amazon sells another Verbatim DVD also ... Verbatim 97459. I have been trying to find out what the difference is for over an hour on Google and came up with very little information so far ... I have a lot more searching to do, just ran out of time for now. Anyway, I did find an article that isn't too old (Feb 2012) "The 5 Most-Talked-About Optical Discs" and it says this about Verbatium and the two different product numbers.

http://www.pcmech.com/article/the-5-most-talked-about-optical-discs/

... don't know if that link will work but it's correct ...

"Aren’t all Verbatim 100-pack DVD+R spindles the same?" No, they’re not. There are many who very specifically seek out the 95098 spindle, meaning not the 97459 and not the 97460. Many people feel that the 95098 is the best DVD+R recordable Verbatim makes. And no there is no price difference between this particular spindle and others by Verbatim; it just happens to be that people like the 95098 the most.

.... I did just buy the Verbatium 97459 product from Amazon in early May but the DVDs were listed as being made in Thailand and not India ... that seems to be another story and discussion, what country are the various Verbatium DVDs from. Anyway, the DVDs that were around $29 just yesterday are now $21.99 and they are identified as Verbatim 95098. Both products have the "AZO" dye layer.

From the Manufacturer:

The Verbatim AZO recording layer gives our DVD media the competitive advantage-the patented coating delivers protection that lasts generations and provides ultimate resistance to UV light damage. That's why Verbatim's been recognized as the No. 1 Optical Brand in the World*--we consistently provide optical media of the highest quality and compatibility. When drive manufacturers test their products for maximum performance, they use Verbatim--so why wouldn't you?

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM), Verbatim's parent company in Japan, brings extensive technological research and development to the table. Core technologies, like the AZO recording layer give Verbatim an offering like no other optical manufacturer. This unique and ultra-stable layer strongly resists UV light, withstands high laser and rotation speeds on newer drives and ensures compatibility with current DVD standards.

Verbatim's AZO recording layer not only withstands the extremely high laser and rotation speeds of newer drives, it also maximizes their performance. Verbatim paid particular attention to the durability and light fastness of AZO; tests show that it is more stable than most recording dyes and the least affected by ultraviolet light.

AZO also offers high sensitivity for reliable high-speed recording and high reflectivity to eliminate read errors. The thinness of the recording layer is also critical. The thinner the layer, the higher the sensitivity and power margin; therefore, the better the DVD works for high-speed recording.

What does all this mean for you? Verbatim AZO technology translates into optical products that cost just a little more but are worth the slight difference. They are products you want-offering reliability, high read and write performance, high-quality photos and sound and superior archival protection that lasts.

Features

Warranty - Verbatim manufactures our DVDs to meet our strict quality standards. We stand behind the quality of our products-and our Limited Lifetime Warranty proves it!

Compatibility - our online reviews say it for us; we make DVDs that work--no coasters! Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM), our parent company, has long-standing relationships with drive manufacturers who use our products to test their performance, making Verbatim DVDs the most compatible in the industry.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009YJXMS/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

.... further down the page it go into detail about the AZO layer ... and comments from other buyers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.... as I said earlier, I only know what I read ... I did just order 200 of these Verbatim 95098 DVDs to test them and see how they will burn. I also have the other 97459 product. They are under $22 as I write this but the price could change anytime. Amazon is like that ... sometimes maybe a day or more or just a few hours till the price changes. If anyone has further knowledge of the various Verbatim DVD products ... like to hear about it. As I mentioned earlier, some have posted that Verbatim DVDs made in Thailand or Asia are better than the ones made in India ... but you don't really know, until you get the shipment, where they were made. Hope this might be somewhat helpful ... if the 95098 is the superior product then this is probably a good deal till the price goes back up in the US ... not sure about Amazon prices in other countries ... I sometimes shop and have ordered from other Amazon sites for hard to find DVDs (films) not for sale in the US but I didn't have time to check blank DVDs prices.

...

Edited May 28, 2012 by duffy98

[jaclaz]

Talking about DVDs and some of the better brands ...

Just for the record there are reports "here and there" that besides the difference between "good" brands and "bad" brands, there are other two kinds of issues:

• a "same brand" CD/DVD may have been manufactured in a "good" factory and as well in a "bad" factory (there is a way to identify media, see later in this post)
  
• more then the above it seems like a given brand/model of burner will work "better" with a "given brand/make" of media and "worse" with "another brand/make" of media
  

In other words I have seen more than one report that:

burner model A+media type B=good result

burner model A+media type C=bad result

BUT:

burner model D+media type C=good result

burner model D+media type B=bad result

There is some info "hard encoded" in the media, called "ATIP", (Absolute Time in Pregroove) or ADIP (Address in Pregroove), and quite a few programs capable of reading it, such as:

http://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com/

If you analyze this info on a few different media, it will be evident how a same "good" or "bad") factory/manufacturer may make a disc that is sold as either "good" brand A or "bad" brand B, i.e. you can easily find two differently branded disc's (often payed a very different price) having been actually manufactured in the same factory.

It is not at all clear if (as it happens in other industries) there are (within the same factory) "better" batches (which are then marked with "good brand" name) and "bad" batches (which are then marled "no-name" or "cheap brand")

jaclaz

[Monroe]

Ok ... yes jaclaz, just became aware of DVD Identifier in April ... I think it was mentioned by someone posting at Amazon on the Verbatim DVDs as to which were from factories in India and Thailand. I didn't have time to mention DVD Identifier earlier today.

I also didn't have time to get into the Amazon brand DVDs and my experience with them. Last year, they were mostly under $18 all year till late in the year and so far in 2012 the price has been everywhere to as high as $30 / 100 but mostly around $25 ... in Feb (2012) the price dropped below $20 for a short time and I ordered 100 to try them. Most people said they were OK to very good for the price with very few coasters. With the Amazon brand DVDs I bought in Feb ... I found that to be true. I just used them up in the last two weeks and I think I only had one the was bad. In late April the price on the Amazon brand dropped below $22 and I ordered 200 since I had a good experience with the last order. Just started burning them in the last two weeks and my experience with this order is terrible ... just a few days ago, I had five in a row that wouldn't burn or had errors ... Out of about 50 used so far, I'd say about 20 may have been bad or did not finish a complete burn. Just yesterday, I noticed the Amazon brand was below $20 ... still is today when I discovered the Verbatim brand on sale. However, I noticed there were several customer postings over the last seven days complaining of bad burns and many coasters. Perhaps this batch of Amazon DVDs have a problem. I will not buy them anymore myself ... will use the Verbatim brand for now. Also, as someone posted about the Amazon brand ... the DVD is a little "thicker" than most other DVDs, so it might not work in all DVD players or need to be pushed down harder on a spindle to get it to set correctly. I found this to be true, they are somewhat thicker ... I noticed that Verbatim says this about their DVDs: AZO also offers high sensitivity for reliable high-speed recording and high reflectivity to eliminate read errors. The thinness of the recording layer is also critical. The thinner the layer, the higher the sensitivity and power margin; therefore, the better the DVD works for high-speed recording.

... so the Amazon brand DVDs are also on sale but for a little more in price, the Verbatims might be the better deal, if you need some DVDs.

...

[Multibooter]

It is not at all clear if (as it happens in other industries) there are (within the same factory) "better" batches (which are then marked with "good brand" name) and "bad" batches (which are then marled "no-name" or "cheap brand")

I would speculate that the good batches go to Europe and the inferior batches go to the USA, where one can usually return bought items within 14 days, but not after that; to get a longer warranty, you have to buy an additional service contract. So writable DVD media sold in the US should work reliably for at least 14 days

[Multibooter]

.. the [Verbatim AZO] DVD is a little "thicker" than most other DVDs

I rejected these AZO DVDs because my burners couldn't produce good quality burns with them, as measured by Nero Speed Disk.

I wouldn't buy that many DVD spindles, they age (not the spindles, the DVDs) and eventually they will be legacy media. I had bought several hundred blank 1.44MB floppy disks maybe 10 years ago, because they were cheap, most of them are still sitting in a box, until the next big cleanup.

Edited May 28, 2012 by Multibooter

[Multibooter]

I am currently trying to repair a .iso CD image which contains program files and short .avi files. The underlying CD apparently had bad sectors, so that 2 .avi files are corrupt and hang the VideoLAN player. The .iso file itself seems to be Ok.

I have tried to repair the 2 corrupt .avi files, so that I can re-inject the repaired .avi files into the .iso image file.

DivXRepair v1.0.1 of 6-Mar-2003 http://divxrepair.sourceforge.net/ was able to repair one of the two files, so that it plays Ok with VideoLAN, with cracking sounds where the bad stuff was, and VideoLAN does not crash anymore. DivXRepair could not repair the 2nd .avi file, and crashed while trying to repair it. DivFix++ v0.34 was also able to repair the 1st file, but not the second file. ASF-AVI-RM-WMV-Repair v1.82 did something useful to the 2nd file: although the repaired file caused VideoLAN to crash, the sound continued playing apparently Ok.

Any suggestions for a better repair tool for .avi files?

Edited September 14, 2012 by Multibooter

[jaclaz]

Any suggestions for a better repair tool for .avi files?

Do the .avi's play in VirtualDub?

http://www.virtualdub.org/

jaclaz

[Multibooter]

Do the .avi's play in VirtualDub? http://www.virtualdub.org/

Hi jaclaz,

The unrepaired .avi #1 plays Ok in VirtualDub v1.9.11, the bad .avi #2 crashes VirtualDub with the message "VirtualDub Program Failure. Oops --- VirtualDub has crashed... An out-of bounds memory access (access violation) occurred in module 'ir32_32'... while decompressing video frame 242..."

BTW, DivXRepair v1.0.1, which could repair the bad .avi #1, is based on VirtualDub v1.4.2 and when DivXRepair crashes on the 2nd bad .avi file, a window "VirtualDub Program Failure. Crash Reason: Access violation" comes up.

The .iso file itself seems to be Ok.

I have to correct my previous posting #42. The CD image file is not a .iso file, but a .bin file. When I extracted the .bin file with UltraISO v9.3.6.2750 there was no error message. When I extracted under Win98SE the same .bin file with Isobuster v2.5.0.0, however, Isobuster displayed CRC errors:

- for the bad .avi #1 sectors 127836-127838 could not be read (altogether 3 bad sectors)

- for the bad .avi #2: sectors 164657-164662 and 165033-165036 could not be read (altogether 10 bad sectors)

So Isobuster seems to be a very good tool for testing the integrity of .bin files, probably also of other CD image file types.

The 2 bad .avi files extracted with UltraISO were better than those extracted by Isobuster, however. The bad .avi #1 extracted with UltraISO could be repaired with DivXRepair, but not the bad .avi #1 extracted with Isobuster.

Edited September 14, 2012 by Multibooter

[jaclaz]

I have to correct my previous posting #42. The CD image file is not a .iso file, but a .bin file. When I extracted the .bin file with UltraISO v9.3.6.2750 there was no error message. When I extracted under Win98SE the same .bin file with Isobuster v2.5.0.0, however, Isobuster displayed CRC errors:

- for the bad .avi #1 sectors 127836-127838 could not be read (altogether 3 bad sectors)

- for the bad .avi #2: sectors 164657-164662 and 165033-165036 could not be read (altogether 10 bad sectors)

Hmmm.

.bin says "little".

Which program made the file?

It is "queer" that the error is about "bad sectors".

Which OS are you running (apart W98) or can you run?

Where is (physically) the .bin file saved?

It is not at all clear (to me at least) if the error is in the .bin file, in the media on which it is or in the way the two mentioned tools attempt to extract the .avi from the .bin.

I would try to mount the .bin in a Virtual CD and then copy from it with a tool like Unstoppable Copier (or similar).

Then I would throw at them files every tool around +1, another one:

http://www.risingresearch.com/en/dvr/

Also Virtualdub has more options that you (or myself) will ever be able to understand and use, I seem to remember that I managed more than once to create "good chunks" from otherwise corrupted videos, but cannot remember the details and most probably it depends by a number of factors like codec, etc. or maybe try VirtualdubMod:

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/repair_broken_or_corrupt_avi_files.cfm

jaclaz

Edited September 14, 2012 by jaclaz