[marianne]

I've been backing up files to dvd's by sending to dvd-r and all has been working fine. I can add or delete files. Normally what occurs is when I'm ready to eject dvd there normally is a message to wait so dvd can be used on other computers. But something happend in the middle of adding addtional files and things got stuck so have to shut down computer. When back up I could not locate any of the files I sent to the dvd. I ejected and that message ...so dvd can be played on other computers... did not come up. I inserted it but then had difficulty even opening it and when I did no files appeared. So my question is can I retrieve the files from that dvd and it so, how. I already deleted the orginal files and empytied the recycle bin since up to that point I had not had any problems. The computer I'm using is a compaq laptop with 2 gig ram and 137 gig hard drive not the one in my signature in this post.

Thanks,
Marianne

[Oddba11]

You can use an app such as ISOBuster. With that said, as the burn didn't complete (properly), the files may not even be on the disc.

On a side note, if the files are important, there should be more than a single copy. As you are deleting the originals after burning, you aren't really making a backup, you are simply moving the files. "Backup" would imply a copy in case the originals are lost/damaged.

[marianne]

I'm not sure about any of it. I was backing up from an external hard drive onto the disks and then once burned, deleted them from the ext drive and then emptying the recycle. Then I did a clean up on the ext drive. I got too confident that all would go well. So I was really cleaning up good. I am trying to get all that stuff off the external drive which is 500 gb and almost full. I've been putting stuff on it for ab out 5 years now and was concerned I might lose some. Anyway, at this point I am disgusted with the digital world. So I'll look into what you suggested and get back with you on this.
Thanks

[DoubleHelix]

You're not backing anything up if you're just moving your one and only copy of files from one location to another. To create a backup, you need to have 2 copies of your data.