I recently bought a SONY DVD writer to take some pretty big movie files off my harddrive before I reformat. It put it in and all was well. I burnt a few DVD's and erased the files from my harddrive. I assumed that because k3b was happy and reported no errors and I was able to mount and browse the DVD when it was done that everything had worked.

When I came to retrieve some files from one of these I was gutted to find that I got an input/output error when I tried to copy the files I was after off the DVD. This was just with one DVD - I have managed to retrieve files from others that I've burnt., but I want to be able to rely on retrieving these files or what's the point.

Since then I've burned and half maximum speed, had all other applications closed, enable verification and the 3 DVD's I've burnt since then have burned fine but failed the verification near the end reporting "error while reading from file".

I've already sent one DVD writer back as it was damaged in transit. Before I contact the manufacturer about this one - could I be doing something wrong?

I would also ask if you are using quality media, or cut-rate, no-name blank DVD's. In my experience you pretty much do get what you pay for, and using a well-known brand name will avoid making a bunch of coasters. I can't say whether or not that's the cause, but it would be one thing to look at. Good luck with it -- J.W.

Burning at 2X or 4X is not best for DVD recording discs. I suggest burning at 1X. Yes it will take a while but it is more reliable. To increase reliability try other brands. Certain drives work better with other brands. Next try upgrading dvdrecord because sometimes latest versions might correct your problems. Until DVD recording drives mature do these things. In Windows this is the same thing, but it is improving. You may want to use md5sum on the files that you are going to put on the DVD. After you are done burning check the files on the DVD against the md5sum file. If they are perfect you can delete the files.

If you want to get the data off the corrupt DVD, use the dd command with noerror. It will take a lot of time, so be patient. After it is done, you can try to mount it. Some files can be access while other files will use a strange file name and probably still work.

You may want to buy a few 120 GB hard drives and USB enclosures. The magnetic mediums have a longer lifespan than CDs or DVDs. If you are careful with the hard drives they can last for several decades.

Sorted - I switched from Mandrake to Debian after the new easier installation ISO became available and it just works - no messing about, fantastic.