What's the best way to retrive data from a dvd?

Question

I have a fujifilm dvd+rw amd i got a lot of stuff on it and sometimes it shows everything on it and sometime it shows just one thing.

Answer 1

Go back to where you bought the equipment from it sounds as though this is the problem not the dvd+rw

Answer 2

Backing up your data files is the first step toward protecting your data. Backing up your entire system — settings, applications, the whole nine yards — is also important. I've been mightily impressed with Acronis True Image 7.0 from Acronis ($49.95) since I started testing it a couple of weeks ago. Like its competition (such as Norton Ghost or Drive Image 7, the latter formerly from PowerQuest and since acquired by Symantec), Acronis True Image copies all files on your system without booting to DOS, can split the image into multiple files (to fit the image on a series of CD or DVD disks, for example), and makes recovery of the entire disk easy.

Acronis True Image goes even further. Instead of always backing up the entire partition each time, Acronis True Image lets you back up just the changed files. This incremental backup feature will save you lots (and lots) of time depending on how frequently you back up.

Another distinguishing feature: you can create a Secure Zone partition. It's much like the partition on my HP Pavilion that stores my recovery disks — you can't access it from Windows Explorer, so you can't accidentally erase it, but the data is there when you need to do a full straight-from-the-factory system restore. By setting up a Secure Zone (limited to one per system), when you press F11 during bootup, Acronis True Image kicks in (using its Startup Recovery Manager feature) and automatically restores the image stored in the Secure Zone. (You can also resize the Secure Zone, or delete it entirely, whenever you wish. The Secure Zone takes space from the hard drive you specify.)

Another extra: you can use Acronis True Image to clone a disk drive — especially handy if you are installing a second drive in your system — and you can copy just program and data files without copying the operating system. Even better: you can change partition sizes and file system used (NTFS, FAT32) of the destination drive (for existing or new drives).

Restoring individual files is easy. You select the backup file and Acronis True Image creates a virtual disk — fooling Windows into thinking you're working with a real disk drive, not a giant compressed file. You can then drag and drop files from this new virtual disk to your hard disk to recover them from the image backup.

There are some minor irritations. After a backup you can run a verify step to validate your backup file(s), but it would have been nicer if this had been an integrated option so the feature could run automatically after a backup if I so desired. You can manually choose the maximum size of your backup files (if your backup exceeds the limit, additional files are created in series, so you can span the backup among media) or pick from several pre-defined sizes (700 Mb for a CD, for example), but there isn't a pre-defined 4.7 Gb setting for DVD recordable disks.

Acronis True Image also comes with a scheduler for after-hours operation, so you've no excuse for not protecting your data.

Overall, Acronis True Image does an excellent job of backup and recovery. It's wizard interface and simple explanations make it easy for the novice to get started quickly. You'll find an overview of features at http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/, where you can also download the thorough user guide (in PDF format) to get the specifics of how everything works — a nice touch.