WTF??? problem with recovering files from saved DVDs
 

I had to restore some archives I made of music from archived DVDs (don't ask) I had about 40-some odd DVDs

It was OK, as each DVD took less than 5 minutes to copy back to disk.

BUT...

One DVD in particular took several HOURS to copy back to disk?

What's up with that?

Any suggestions???

{{In the end, I had "re-acquired" that music (the entire Bach collection) and just killed the DVD process, and threw the DVDs in the trash}}.

Although the problem has been solved already, I am still wondering as to why I this happened in the first place.

Your wisdom is appreciated.
Thank you for any help/clues you can give me, and have a GREAT day!!

Reputedly, DVDs can keep data for a long time, much longer than CDs I read, but they are not immune to deterioration. I suppose this particular DVD was simply broken.

^ ...and the drive was trying again and again to read bad sectors, hoping it would succeed evtl.
This is configurable though.

Optical media is prone to degradation when exposed to UV light. Sometimes bad when new, if your retailer kept them on a window facing shelf (for probably six+ months before you bought them). And some discs are just not that good anyway. Always verify your burns. With backup methodologies, one is none, yada yada yada...

Thank you!
As an aside, the DVDs were living in a drawer that was rarely opened.
Thank you for your answer.

NOW.... I just need a more permanent solution.....

Have a great day, guys!

Any optical disk deteriorates over time, no matter how well protected. This fact got you this time.

A more permanent solution would be multiple backups, with the source on a raid5 or raid6 array so one failure will not lose the data. Then renew the backups periodically and verify the backup each time.

It has been said repeatedly, but I will again say it. At least one of those backups should be off-site so should the worst happen (fire, flood, tornado, lightning, etc) the data will have at least one good copy. Businesses use multiple data centers with the data in each a redundant copy of the other(s). HDD prices are now mostly affordable so you could have 2 or more copies on portable HDDs and arrange a storage situation to keep at least one in a separate location.