Troubleshooting Problematic Discs

From Redump Wiki

Optical discs can fail to dump properly or even read for a variety of reasons. Some of these issues can be troubleshot.

Please reach out in the VGPC Discord or on the Redump forum, if you are having other types of trouble or need further assistance with getting a disc to dump successfully.

Troubleshooting

• If your disc gives C2 errors (CD):
  • Try dumping at a lower speed. For example, one recommendation is to try 24x, then 16x, then 8x.
  • Clean with a damp, soft cloth or soft cotton material (cotton ball, or even a shirt). Avoid rough cloth fibers.
  • Resurface the disc. There's a wide range of quality for resurfacing machines. The best results will be from the professional industrial machines game shops have. There are ebay listings for resurfacing services which will be of variable quality. There are also consumer machines, some of which may do the job, some of which may damage the disc further.
• Discs with paper labels that have trouble reading: Remove the paper labels with a damp, wet cloth. Often beta discs will have heavy, paper layers that scrape the roof of the optical disc drive or simply weigh the disc down.
• CD-Rs and DVD-Rs (commonly betas) that your PC doesn't recognize. This can be caused by a variety of issues.
  • Try another (or many other) disc drive. This will give you the best chance of success.
  • For PS2 DVD-R betas see here.
  • Check for damage near the center hole, if there is degradation in the TOC the disc will be unreadable.
  • Hold the disc up to the light and check for pinholes. If the disc is severely damaged it won't dump properly.