Hello,
My question is what hardware or method would be used to recover data from the CD below? It was passed through a CD/DVD destroyer I purchased that claims to "destroy the data layer without shredding". It pits/scratches the surface with a waffle pattern . Yes it's true that the media is no longer recognized in the drive but a visual inspection tells me the data is mostly still intact and my drive is only having a hard time reading the TOC and tracks. I tried ddrescue/dd_rescue and they failed but I'm assuming there exists specialized hardware out there that could recover the data?
I took the pictures below, they are both the same cd, one is up close though. I'm not too happy with the product (I thought it would shave the data off completely, not pit it) and will probably return it but I'm still curious.
Thanks!
if only the acrylic and polycarbonate layers are pitted, what would stop one to resurface/shine it?
The top reflective layer is also pitted so resurfacing the lower layer might not help although on most of my CDs, they either have a sticker or coating on top, so I'd say the top surface is pretty much unscathed. So resurfacing might be a fair option if the pits aren't deep enough. Ugh, I think I will buy a real CD shredder instead.
I'm still curious what turnkey hardware forensics solutions out there exist for badly damaged CD/DVDs?
"but a visual inspection tells me the data is mostly still intact"
Just because you can visually see where the data was burned at doesn't make it retrievable. I can run a CD through a shredder, or chemically alter the CD and you can see where the laser hit on the area, but you aren't going to get any workable data back.
If it was for a case where I really needed to have the data, I would try everything from a spin doc to a fruit peel, and everything in between. I'd also contact the manufacturer of the product which made the data unreadable and reverse it and see what if anything could be worked from that end. Of course they could say we put holes in the CD or we make dents in the CD, but the method they use, the material on the end of whatever makes the dents in the CD's. I'd break it down from the smallest level in an effort to come up with a solution if one was possible.