CDRoller is a data recovery program for Windows. It retrieves files from CD, DVD, Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs, as well as from hard drives, SSDs, flash drives, memory cards and floppy disks. Its main focus is optical media: unfinalized discs, packet-written UDF discs, multisession backups and DVDs recorded by camcorders and standalone recorders. CDRoller is paid software with a trial version.
How UDF discs are read and repaired
Drag-and-drop writing software such as Roxio DirectCD, Nero InCD and the Windows Live File System uses the UDF file system. DVD camcorders also use it. When a disc is inserted, CDRoller identifies its UDF version, from 1.02 through 2.60, and tests the directory structure. It can also correct some structural faults left by DirectCD.
On write-once media (CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+R DL and BD-R), the drive writes a Virtual Allocation Table each time the disc is ejected. A newer table no longer points to files deleted earlier, but older tables still do. With the “Search of All VATs” option on, CDRoller locates these older tables. It presents each restored directory state as a separate session, so files deleted in later sessions become visible again.
When the directory itself is missing or broken, Scan UDF Disc searches the disc for file data that nothing points to anymore. This covers files hidden after an interrupted write, deleted files, quick-formatted DirectCD or InCD discs and damaged UDF folders. Some of these files come back without their original names; the File Identifier examines their content and assigns a usable extension.
Multisession backups
A disc written in several stages holds a new session for each stage. Windows shows only the latest one, so earlier backups can appear to have vanished. CDRoller’s Session Selector lists every session as a separate entry. Selecting one exposes its files for browsing or recovery. Recover All works on the current session only, so the user selects and recovers each session in turn.
Camcorder and recorder DVDs
A wizard under File > Recover DVD Video handles discs that a camcorder or standalone DVD recorder left unfinalized or damaged. The user picks the drive, selects the recorder type (or “Any recorder”), and scans the displayed tracks, starting with the longest. The user then saves the found VOB video files and JPEG photos with Recover All or Recover Selected.
For AVCHD camcorders, CDRoller offers forced-scan modes matched to the camera model and disc type. These modes read the disc without relying on its system data and recover the M2TS clips. Users can browse VRO files from DVD-VR discs directly. Because these files are often fragmented, users can recover each fragment separately.
Turning recovered video into usable files
Split Video converts raw VOB or VRO data into MPEG-2 files without quality loss. For Hitachi and Panasonic recordings, it also divides the footage into individual scenes. A built-in video converter turns MPEG-2 and AVCHD files into MP4 using codecs such as H.264, H.265/HEVC, VP8, Xvid and MPEG-4. An authoring option builds a VIDEO_TS folder that the integrated burner writes to a new, playable DVD-Video disc. A separate tester checks whether an existing DVD-Video disc will still play in standard DVD players.
Damaged ISO and Joliet discs
Discs burned by mastering software normally use ISO 9660 with Joliet or Rock Ridge extensions. If the volume descriptors are unreadable and the disc shows an unknown file system, or folders are corrupted, Identify Raw ISO Data scans the disc for file data as a last resort. Files without a recognized type can then be identified, renamed or given a new extension in bulk. CDRoller also retrieves photos from unfinalized Sony Mavica CDs.
Hard drives, flash media and disk images
Extended Data Recovery uses a kernel-mode driver to read raw data from internal and external hard drives, SSDs, USB drives and memory cards. Supported memory cards include CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Memory Stick and xD. Supported file systems include NTFS, ReFS, FAT12/16/32, exFAT, Ext2, Ext3 and UDF. Deleted files, including photos removed in a camera, appear in a $LOST FILES$ folder. CDRoller can also retrieve files on quick-formatted flash media. MP3 recognition helps find lost recordings on voice recorder memory.
CDRoller can create byte-for-byte images of a whole disk, a logical drive or a single partition. It replaces unreadable sectors with a fixed byte pattern so the image structure stays intact. It opens ISO, dd, VHD and VHDX images and Expert Witness E01, L01 and S01 evidence files as separate volumes.
Sector examination and disc tools
Examine Sectors shows any sector of a disc or drive in text, binary, hexadecimal or Unicode view. It also searches the whole medium for a string such as an email address and copies chosen sector ranges to a file.
Other tools in CDRoller include:
- Test Disc, which runs file system, surface and audio extraction quality checks and saves the report as HTML.
- Audio CD extraction to WAV, MP3, MP2, OGG or RAW, with jitter correction.
- Short CD/DVD images that catalog discs into a library, plus Reed-Solomon spare files that protect stored data against later read errors.
- A photo viewer with face-recognition grouping and sorting by date taken.
- A quick or full eraser for rewritable discs.
