How to Fix Trace Errors on DVDs

You expect your files to be safe when they are stored on a durable medium, such as a DVD. Your files may seem lost, however, if the DVD suffers external damage due to mishandling or internal damage due to a virus or formatting error. This can be especially frustrating if most of the disc works fine but you get an error message when you try to play or read certain parts of the disc, because trace errors have corrupted only a few files. You can often fix trace errors and return the entire disc to working condition.

• 1

  Install a DVD-ripping program onto your computer. Programs that can rip the disc image files -- or ISOs -- from discs include DVD Decrypter, Handbrake and DVDShrink.

• 2

  Insert the DVD with trace errors into the DVD drive of your computer, then launch the ripping program that you installed. A warning message appears on the screen if the DVD-ripping application cannot read all of the files on the disc, and the disc opens in the program with errors. The ripping program has read past the errors if this warning message does not appear.

• 3

  Rip the DVD with the ripping program if you did not get a warning message. In DVD Decrypter, go to the "Mode" menu, then click "ISO," "Read" and the "Decrypt" button in the main window. In Handbrake, click the menu by "Title," choose the first title on the DVD, click "Rip" and repeat the process for all remaining titles on the disc. In DVDShrink, click the "Backup" button. Click the "Browse" button in any of these programs before ripping to choose a folder in which to save the ripped DVD file.

• 4

  Get a CD recovery program for your computer if the ripping program you tried to use showed a warning message that the disc had errors. CDCheck and Recovery Toolbox are two free recovery programs. Install the recovery program on your computer.

• 5

  Launch the recovery program while the DVD with errors is in the DVD drive, and a screen will open. Click the drive that contains the DVD, and click "Next" or "Check" to check the disc for errors.

• 6

  Click the button with the folder and choose the folder where you want to save the fixed DVD files on your computer. Click "Recover" or "Save" to save all of the disc files, including those that had the errors, to your computer's hard drive.

• 7

  Take out the DVD with errors and put a blank DVD-R into the disc drive. Close the ripping program and open any DVD-burning program that you have on your computer. Open the ISO file that you ripped by clicking the "Add Files" or "Add Video" button in the burning program. Click "Burn" to burn all of the files, along with those that have been fixed, to the new disc.