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#1 2008-08-19 14:26:58

Back2Cali
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2006-02-26
Posts: 223

Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

Hi everybody!

I'm looking for a solution to the following problem:

A friend of mine accidentally did write data to a CD by continuing to write on this CD-R that was previously burned in multisession mode. Now he cannot access the data that were there before. I know that the data is still on the CD but just invisible for regular use.
Now my question is, what can I do under (Arch)Linux to access those data? I know some commercial windows solutions to get the access, but as a Linux user I asked myself what to do on my system and how to handle this problem in here.
I mean there's gotta be a solution somehow, I just never had a problem like that so I don't know what there is to do.
Also is there a graphical solution or does it only work in the console? I would be fine with both, but in order to convince people that Linux is superior I would also like to present a solution with an GUI.
So does anybody know how to access the first sessions data on that CD (console and/or GUI)???

Thanks a lot

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#2 2008-08-19 15:01:22

thayer
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From: Vancouver, BC
Registered: 2007-05-20
Posts: 1,560
Website

Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

I believe it's a hardware limitation of older burners/ROMs.  Newer burners and/or ROMs should be able to read both sessions without difficulty.

Edit: By 'newer', I mean just about anything made in the past 4-6 years.

Last edited by thayer (2008-08-19 15:02:09)


thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

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#3 2008-08-19 15:08:24

Back2Cali
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2006-02-26
Posts: 223

Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

Well the laptop this guy owns is about 1 or 2 years old but he can't read the data that were on the CD before he continued to burn on the CD.
Under Windows there are software solutions like ISOBuster and so on that are able to read the data that was marked as no longer readable during the second burn process. But since it's a simple writable CD that can't be formated, these data are still there. But not visible right away. And it seems that newer drives don't show them too, unless accessed in a special way, which I have no clue about under Linux. Or am I missing something when accessing the CD?
Thanks!

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#4 2008-08-19 17:20:04

thayer
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From: Vancouver, BC
Registered: 2007-05-20
Posts: 1,560
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Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

Back2Cali wrote:

Well the laptop this guy owns is about 1 or 2 years old but he can't read the data that were on the CD before he continued to burn on the CD.

This may sound obvious, but are you 100% certain it's the same CD, and that CD definitely contained burned files before now?  I ask the latter because some Desktop Environments can easily trick an inexperienced user into thinking a CD has files on it, due to the way it displays symlinks from previous burn sessions in the existing media directory (the Nautilus CD burning tools do this for example.)

Edit: Meant to say too that there is nothing special that must be done to view previous sessions.  This is automatic on nearly every CD/DVD burner made in recent years, regardless of the file manager or operating system.

Last edited by thayer (2008-08-19 17:21:29)


thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

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#5 2008-08-19 17:23:41

Back2Cali
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2006-02-26
Posts: 223

Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

I'm absolutely sure. The guy who accidentally overwrote the CD is a Windows user and the CD was tagged. Some scientific data for his university work. So I'm 100% certain it's the same CD....

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#6 2008-08-19 17:32:31

Fackamato
Member
Registered: 2006-03-31
Posts: 579

Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

dd if=dev-cdrom of=cdrom.img ?

Then some partition/file reecovery on the image? Alt. directly on the cdrom-device?

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#7 2008-08-19 17:57:50

thayer
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From: Vancouver, BC
Registered: 2007-05-20
Posts: 1,560
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Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

Back2Cali wrote:

I'm absolutely sure. The guy who accidentally overwrote the CD is a Windows user and the CD was tagged. Some scientific data for his university work. So I'm 100% certain it's the same CD....

Found this, but otherwise I'm out of ideas:

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom -t iso9660  -o session=0

Full info: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/CDRW


thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

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#8 2008-08-19 19:38:41

moljac024
Member
From: Serbia
Registered: 2008-01-29
Posts: 2,676

Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

I've had this problem on windows about a year ago. I solved it with a nice little free program that is specifically designed for recovering lost sessions. I just can't remember the name right now... Anyway, this could be helpful to you. I'm trying to find out the name now.

Last edited by moljac024 (2008-08-19 19:39:27)


The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
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But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

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#9 2008-08-19 19:44:40

Back2Cali
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2006-02-26
Posts: 223

Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

Well, this would be a great thing for now. Thanks moljac024!
Nevertheless, to extend my knowledge I would still like to know how to solve a problem like that within Linux. Just out of curiosity. wink
Thanks a lot!

Last edited by Back2Cali (2008-08-19 19:45:04)

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#10 2008-08-19 20:06:32

moljac024
Member
From: Serbia
Registered: 2008-01-29
Posts: 2,676

Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

Here it is mate, Isobuster to the rescue!

http://www.isobuster.com/


The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

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#11 2008-08-19 20:11:32

Back2Cali
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2006-02-26
Posts: 223

Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

Thanks moljac!
That was the windows software I was talking about in my first post. smile
This one is not for free as far as I have seen. Again thanks a lot for helping me with this. It tells me that isobuster seems to be the best one.

Well, maybe somebody knows what to do when running into this scenario with a linux system.

Thanks! smile

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#12 2008-08-19 20:15:17

thayer
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From: Vancouver, BC
Registered: 2007-05-20
Posts: 1,560
Website

Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

Back2Cali wrote:

Well, maybe somebody knows what to do when running into this scenario with a linux system.

Did you try the method I mentioned above?

With multi-session cdrom, it is possible to delete files of previous session. Because the files are not really deleted, it is possible to recover them. To read files from the first session, run under Linux:

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom -t iso9660  -o session=0

thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

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#13 2008-08-19 20:22:13

moljac024
Member
From: Serbia
Registered: 2008-01-29
Posts: 2,676

Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

Isobuster used to be free and it saved my skin back then. I see that they've dived into commercial waters but they still offer a free version.

As for a solution under linux, have you tried thayer's suggestion ?


The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

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#14 2008-08-19 20:26:43

Back2Cali
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2006-02-26
Posts: 223

Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

The CD is currently not here at my place. As soon as I get it I will test the suggestion thayer made. Sorry, I overred that post!

Thanks for helping out. I will let you know more once I tested it. Maybe I create a damaged CD myself just to test. wink

Thank you all for the help!

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#15 2008-08-22 12:53:53

Back2Cali
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2006-02-26
Posts: 223

Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

Alright here is the promised update on the problem:

http://users.elis.ugent.be/~mronsse/cdfs/

This mounts the CD just as I liked it to be mounted with all previous sessions. It's already in the community repo (sure it is, once I found it I had no doubt). That will solve the problem when only running linux. Thanks for all suggestions and the help from you guys.

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#16 2008-08-22 13:58:42

slackhack
Member
Registered: 2004-06-30
Posts: 738

Re: Multisession CD accidentally overwritten

If isobuster works, I think isomaster (free) should work. i used to to extract isos to make bootable pendrives. it's in the aur community repos, pacman -S isomaster.

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