CD / DVD surface scan utility / drive speed?

www.cdspeed2000.com
I'm an audio engineer.
About a year ago a friend of mine persuaded me to try out a Mac, which I've used in tandem with my PC since I got it. I do prefer OS X, but the apparent lack of a CD / DVD surface scan & drive speed app could ultimately be a deal breaker. It is the only thing I've found that my Mac simply cannot do native in OS X (perform a CD surface & sector scan). It's a shame because I really wanted to make the switch. Does anyone know an app that performs similarly to Opti Drive Speed (www.cdspeed2000.com)?

Really, this is the Logic Pro 8 forum? gasp
I figured people working with Logic Pro 8 would have a better chance of knowing about a surface scan app than in another forum.
If I could find a surface scan app with google or versiontracker, would I be asking here?
If it is such an easy utility to duplicate, then why isn't there one for OS X?

Similar Messages

DVD Surface Scan Software

This is the second year I've used DVDSP4 to author DVD's of my wife's studio dance recital. I got the final DVD's back yesterday and started checking them in one of our DVD players at home. Two of the seven I tried were ususable. They would start playing but pause and display a disc read error message. I called the duplication shop and they said if I bring in the discs I think are bad, they can check them and will replace them if they indeed are bad.
Is there software I can download to do a surface scan on these discs? I did a google search but all I can find is software for PC's such as Nero CD-DVD speed. Thanks in advance.

Before you go worrying about the surface of the media, think about how you built the disc...
What was the bitrate for the video?
What format of audio did you use?
How full were the discs?
Now, if your bitrate was below 7.4Mbps, and the audio was all AC3 at 192kbps, then I'd start looking at the media, but only after checking the bitrate with a tool like Mpressionist (www.digigami.com). If you encoded with Compressor there is a chance that you got a bitrate spike in the encode which will make the disc unplayable.
Finally, the duplication house will have simply copied your DVD-R, bit for bit. I would look there first to make doubly sure your disc is good.
Then I'd be thinking about the media after that! If you are sure all of your work is well within the boundaries, and that your master was fine, then ask the duplicator to use one of your own branded discs to create a copy. If that works, then it is almost certainly the media they have used!
Or, you could just ask them to replace the discs...

What does a "full surface scan" of a hard drive?

I've been advised to do a "hard format and full surface scan" of new internal hard drives I'm adding to my new mac pro to hopefully avoid encountering any problems down the line. (mostly HDV video editing purposes) If there are any problems I would just exchange the drives now rather than wait for the problem to pop up unexpectedly. I'm not sure if disk utility does a true surface scan. So, is there any included apple application that does a true "full surface scan"? If not, what other inexpensive software would do it? I've heard of disk warrior and similar software but they are $100 which I'd like to avoid spending on a preemptive surface scan. Thanks.

You can look for free utility. But you won't find a better disk catalogue maintenance program.
You could buy TechTool Pro that does a good media surface scan but then fails or doesn't actually do anything to map a sector out.
Windows wlll let you use the vendor's own tool and does an excellent job.
SMART Utility sounds like it does a good job.
Intech Speedtools has a suite of tools but I found it to not do a good job when I did notice the side effects and behavior of weak and bad blocks. ZoneBench/QuickBench set is only $29 and you can do a lot with those, helps to create multiple partitions to force write test to every block.
Bottom line i see: no free lunches.
I use to believe that a zero all would attempt but the errors have to be really bad to pick them up. And a 7-way write erase takes 7X longer and really strains things. So I stict to WD Diagnostic Utility running in Windows, and I swear by the results and job it does. Excellect.
In theory, enterprise drives with 1.4 million MTBF hours have longer burn-in and therefore should be safer.
You could torture a drive for a few days and load it with files and then erase with zero and/or 7-way.

TechTool Surface Scan 1000+ Errors. Replace Drive or Reformat?

My computer recently began freezing whenever I tried to open certain files. I found that each time the computer locked up, a Disk0s2 error flashed in the Console. After checking the SMART Status of my drive (Verified) and running Disk Utility (Repair Disk and Permissions), the problems persisted today. I ran a TechTool Surface Scan and found that my hard drive has over 1000 errors. My question is, should I take the time to reformat the drive and zero over it or should I replace my 3.5 year old hard drive?
Thanks!

jbend32 wrote:
Thanks for your response. I was afraid that the writing was on the wall with this one.
Methinks you're correct.
When I ran Repair Disk, it found two errors, one about a discrepancy in the volume of files and another in the volume directory count. It told me that 1 HFS Volume had been repaired. I'm not sure what this really means.
Always run RD repeatedly until you get two "clean" runs in a row. Each time RD fixes something, something else may be affected, or may not show up until the first thing is fixed.
RD attempts to fix the directory structure, basically the locations of every bit of millions of bits of data scattered across the HD platters. If this directory becomes corrupt, then the data cannot be located/accessed, even if it is still "intact" (would require data recovery software).
As far as an HD replacement goes, it looks like the Seagate Momentum XT might be a good option. Any thoughts?
If 5 people respond to that question, you could easily get 5 different opinions. For my preferences, Seagate has slipped over the last year or two, and although I like the idea of their hybrid drive, I will not buy one until I see reviews reflecting consistent quality. That is my recommendation to you; take a look at some reviews (Tom's hardware, newegg, Amazon, xlr8yourmac, etc.) and see what looks good to you. Another thought, I like to compare it to car brand loyalty. Is a Chevy or a Toyota or a Ford or a Honda, etc. "better?" My current favorite is Hitachi.
Message was edited by: tjk

Writing to dvd with super drive - speed?

I understand from the user manual that I can write to either + or - dvd disks. However they are sold with different speed ratings. Which speed of disk should I buy? Also, in anticipation of further questions, if in 6 months time faster dvd disks are being sold, can I start using faster disks?
Thanks, LJ

Hi Louis XV11:
I understand from the user manual that I can write to
either + or - dvd disks. However they are sold with
different speed ratings. Which speed of disk should I
buy?
If you have the first generation of MB's then you can write to DVD's at 4X and a second generation (LATE 2006) you can write at 6X.
Nowadays you can use any speed, if the disk is rated faster than your drive, it will use your max drive speed, ( so if you have a 16X disk and a 6X drive it will burn at 6X) and if the speed rating is slower than you drives max speed, it will burn at that speed, so you don't need to worry.
For Important data, I would recommend either Apple or Verbatim Disks, and for video, home movies (iMovie, iDVD) use -R.
Also, in anticipation of further questions, if
in 6 months time faster dvd disks are being sold, can
I start using faster disks?
As above
-Robert

What Speed can I run on my PowerBook G4 1.25GHz Matshita DVD-R UJ-816 drive

What Speed can I run on my PowerBook G4 1.25GHz Matshita DVD-R UJ-816 drive?
Can I run above the 2x speed, say if I bought some TDK 16x DVD-R would they work. Please can anyone help me.
Cheers Nick G
Powerbook G4 (15" 1.25GHz) & a Desktop G4 400MHz (PCI graphics) Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Be careful of the Verbatim 16 X DVD-R. I just made 14 Coasters before I got the correct answer from Pioneer who supplied the DVD 104 Super Drive on my Mac even though I installed an A227 firmware update.
They will not burn reliably on my g-4 mac when running Mac OS 10.4.5. I can not burn these DVDs using Toast 7.02.
I have no problem with HP 8X DVD-RW or DVD-R though.
I checked with Pioneer on this and they were helpful explaining the inability of that drive to handle that disk with the present firmware version.
bobg
POWER MAC G-4 (933 MHz QuickSilver) Mac OS X (10.4.5) iSite

Persistent surface scan error on techtool- please help

My Powerbook started running slower than usual, so I decided to run the Techtool Deluxe cd I got with my Apple Care plan. I ran all the tests. My result: 5 errors in the Surface Scan test.
I didn't know what to do, so I took my Powerbook to the Apple store Genius Bar. The guy just said I needed to reformat my HD. So, I did the "erase and install" reformat at the store.
But, the genius bar guy didn't seem to know what he was talking about, so after I did all the software updates at home, I decided to run the Techtool Deluxe cd again. Again, the results showed I had 5 errors in the Surface Scan test, even after I had completely reformatted my hard drive.
I had the 3.0.4 version of Techtool, and just to be safe that it wasn't out of date, I installed it on my computer and updated it to version 3.1.2.
With the updated 3.1.2 Techtool Deluxe program, I ran all the tests again.
And STILL I have 5 errors on my Surface Scan test.
Here is a copy of my results (every thing else passed).
Surface Scan
Failed - 5 errors
The Surface Scan test will scan the disk for bad blocks.
Media defects cause this test to fail. You should consider backing up the device, reformatting the media, replacing the data, and then testing again.
Please help! What am I supposed to do???? (I don't think reformatting my HD will help, because I already did, and still have this problem)
Thank you!

Welcome to the Apple discussions.
When you reformatted the hard drive, did you do an erase and write zero's? That's important because that's what remaps the bad sectors of the hard drive. After booting from the OS X CD, choose disk utility, choose the hard drive, and on the erase tab, choose security options and write zero's. If you don't do this step, a plain erase or erase and install only deletes the index or catalog of the disk contents.

Volume structure, surface scan

I have a new imac, it's been with me for about 2 months total. I noticed some silly little things happening occasionally....so I used tech tools and did a scan. The volume structure failed....and the surface scan has 2 errors.
What's the significance of this? What should I do?

Probably nothing. If you used TT Deluxe I would not rely on it's results. The standard repair tool is Disk Utility which is in your Utilities folder. If you need to repair your drive do this:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

Tech Tool Deluxe 'Surface Scan Failed-'

Surface scan repeatedly failing, no recent change to iBook settings, I suspect that this problem may have been caused by m-audio software, however I believe it has been properly uninstalled. Advice?
Error message reads;
'Surface Scan Failed - 212 errors
The Surface Scan test will scan the disk for bad blocks.
Media defects cause this test to fail. You should consider backing up the device, reformatting the media, replacing the data, and then testing again.'
I am unsure as what this report is prompting me to do. What does the term 'media' mean in this context? Which data should I be trying to replace?
Please forward any tips on how to resolve this issue.
<Post Relocated by Moderator>

When I use the disk utility application the volume passes verification, is this contrary to Tech Tools or are they analyzing different elements of the drive?
Yes, different, DU is just basically checking part of the drive, where Directory info is stored & such.
Laptop drives are generally a lot shorter lived than regular drives, which now seem to last 3 to 5 tears.
Although these errors are present it doesn't seem to be effecting my day to day running of things at the moment...
There's a Train Wreck coming up ahead though, you can avoid it, or wait 'till it hits!
Not certain which iBook G4 you have, but here's some ideas on HD replacements...
http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?sort=pop&model=198&type=DataStorage&TI=5904&shoupgrds=ShowUpgrades

Surface scan on TechTool Deluxe.

Hi
Surface scan on TechTool Deluxe has said that there were 48 errors, why is this? Is this due to the Internet or is it internal or is it just something that happens? Need answers please.
Regards

TJ94 wrote:
Surface scan on TechTool Deluxe has said that there were 48 errors, why is this? Is this due to the Internet or is it internal or is it just something that happens?
A surface scan identifies bad sectors on the drive where data won't be reliably read or written too.
Normally as one writes data to the drive if it can't write to it then the driver software maps off that bad sector and uses another.
However at the factory, data is likely injected directly onto the drive, right over the bad sectors and everything which might result in unstable OS X behavior.
If your computer is running fine, then no need however if OS X is unstable, then perhaps some part of OS X itself is written on a bad sector.
There is a simply method to pre-mapping off bad sectors on new hard drives, and that's Disk Utility Erase Security option Zero and format the drive HFS+ journaled. (warning all data will be lost)
You can also do this in a perfectly fine working OS X by using Disk Utilities "Erase Free Space" option and choosing Zero (don't format)
To do it to a whole OS X drive, you need to clone all the data off first using Carbon Copy Cloner, to a external drive, then hold option and boot from the clone, then use Disk Utility > Zero method.
What Zeroing does is writes 0's to every bit on the drive or free space, depending which option you choose.
The driver software for the hard drive will then map off any bad sectors automatically. So with Zeroing your forcing the machine to do it in advance.
As you notice the Surface Scan for TechTool Deluxe was not enabled in the software by default, it's because there are always errors from bad sectors, but the hard drive driver software automatically takes care of them.

7.2 crashes while scanning internal drive

When I scan my drive from the project manager logic carshes during the middle of the scan.
Can anyone replicate this error?
Thanks

Please read my post.
I tried that, disk utility will not format the drive. Which is the problem.
After disk utility failed I formatted the drive using my Windows 7 disc and then proceeded to install Windows 7, which worked fine for over a day before I decided to try OS X again. Disk Utility again failed to format the disk.
I know its not a standard hardware issue at this point or else Windows wouldn't work. It could be the sata controller isn't reporting S.M.A.R.T. correctly (I'm assuming OS X requires S.M.A.R.T. support), or the temperature sensor isn't working (it wouldn't affect Windows of course) or it could be the install disc I have is a dud, my friend never had to use it because the previous time the HDD failed was during his Apple Care warranty.
Not being a Mac guy (I have 3 Windows machines and maintain another dozen or so for friends and family) I don't have another install disc to try. If no one can help me troubleshoot the problem I would at least like to know if taking it to a "Genius Bar" would be helpful or if they would either A.) not have a way to troubleshoot the issue on site or B.) they would charge me an arm and a leg just to find out its a bad DVD. Or **** they could try to talk me into buying a copy of Lion (not compatible, this is a single core 32bit Intel chip) or buying a new mac or mac "licensed" hdd.
Basically it's not my machine and my friend has since bought a new iMac, but he wants to get this one working to give to a relative who only needs email and basic web browsing. Honestly if it were up to me I'd install a Linux distro and call it a day, but he really wants OS X on it.

Failed "Surface Scan"

Hello Everyone.
I recently ran TechTool Deluxe - The program that came bundled w/ Apple Care, and it generated this report:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1347667/TechTool%20Deluxe%20Report.html
Everything passed except that in the surface scan section, it says:
Surface Scan
Failed - 1 errors
The Surface Scan test will scan the disk for bad blocks.
Media defects cause this test to fail. You should consider backing up the device, reformatting the media, replacing the data, and then testing again.
Should I be concerned about this? Unfortunately, I can not get the drive replaced for free by apple care because I bought this drive a while ago not from Apple (it seems to work very well). Does anyone have any opinions about this matter.
Thanks!

Normally, yes, but TT has a tendency to produce that erroneous error. Use Disk Utility which is in your Utilities folder to repair the drive and/or permissions. Stay away from TT Deluxe. If you need something heftier then purchase Disk Warrior.

Mac Pro not recognizing bootable DVDs and Disk Utility giving odd results.

My issue is complex, but I'll try my best to explain it as I can.
One has been resolved it seems, but I am including it so that the whole issue can be seen in context.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Last night, after rebooting my Mac Pro from my Bootcamp partition (I'm using Windows 7 Professional if that information is helpful) I received a kernel panic upon Mac OS X booting (Mac OS X 10.6.8).
My first action was to launch Disk Utility to verify the Mac HD, verify was stopped by disk utility citing that I should insert my Mac OS X install DVD and repair the disk.
I tried booting from my Snow Leopard install DVD. After the grey Apple logo appeared with the gear spinning below it remained for roughly ten to fifteen seconds (a little long) — then the Apple logo changed to. A grey prohibitory sign (circle with a diagonal line through it, the spinning gear remained. — I tried booting from the Snow Leopard DVD a few time, same result.
Following this I tried booting using Disk Warrior, same result again.
I tried booting both the Snow Leopard and Disk Warrior DVDs in both my upper and lower optical drives, with no change.
I decided to leave the issue and call Apple Support in the morning
Saturday, May 17, 2014
This morning I woke my Mac Pro from sleep, opened Disk Utility and tried verifying the hard drive to see if it was temporary — same result, 'please insert the Mac OS X install DVD and repair the drive.' — I also tried booting the install DVD again with no result.
I then booted my Mac into Safe Mode to check my hardware.
Upon opening Disk Utility and verifying my Mac HD — the result "Macintosh HD appears to be OK", rand the test again to see if this was an anomaly, but disk returned another pass.
I performed a normal restart of my system, although Finder was a little slower to load than normal, the system booted correctly. — I then launched Disk Utility and verified the Mac HD, it returned another pass.
This confused me, after a call to Apple Support the tech explained that 'sometime a Safe Mode boot will fix problems because it disables all non-essential processes when booting. — That makes sense to me.
However.
The issue of my Mac not recognizing bootable DVDs remains — it reads disks correctly, it just will not boot them.
Other steps I have taken to try and resolve this remaining issue.
1. a PRAM reset. — No change.
2. an SMC reset. — No change.
3. Removal of newly installed RAM. — I have tried both running the old and new RAM separately, no change using either combination.
4. Running bootable DVDs in different optical bays. — No change from both bays.
a. My upper drive is an MCE Blu-Ray/DVD combo drive, but I have booted from this drive before. (Less than six months old.)
b. My lower drive is LG DVD-RAM combo drive, I have also booted from this drive before. (Over one year old, replacement for an Apple optical drive.)
None of the above steps have helped, I still cannot boot from my optical drives — I always receive a prohibitory sign shortly after the Apple logo.
Other system information:
Mac OS X 10.6.8
8GB of RAM (4 x 2GB)
500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue HDD (less than a year old, boot drive for Mac OS X 10.6.8)
1TB Samsung HDD (for data storage and also containing Bootcamp partition)
2TB HDD (cannot remember manufacturer, contains Time Machine backups, as well as data storage)
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of VRAM
Sorry for the long post but I really need to be able to boot from my optical drives.

Update: found an old Mountain Lion installation USB flash drive I created a while back.
I am able to boot from the ML USB flash drive, but am still unable to boot from my either my Snow Leopard Install DVD or my Disk Warrior DVD. — I have verified both DVD and they pass verification tests.
This leads me to believe that the problem resides either in the Mac, or in BOTH the Snow Leopard and Disk Warrior DVDs.
Since I am able to boot from a USB drive, I will look into the possibility of creating a bootable Snow Leopard drive, and perhaps also a Disk Warrior drive — at least until I can resolve the 'not able to boot from DVD' issue.

12" 1.33Ghz iBook Hard Drive speed?

hey all,
i'm curious to know if any of you have ended up w/ 5400rpm drives in your 12" 1.33Ghz iBooks. i know of a couple ppl on a diff forum who got stock iBooks and for whatever reason they got 5400rpm 40GB drives. offhand i know there's very little price difference between the 4200 and 5400 drives, so maybe apple is just streamlining their supply line? i'm just wondering if this drive speed is common for the latest revision of the 12" iBooks even tho it isn't something they advertise on the iBook page.
thanks

The hard drive is not a user-installable part. You would void your warranty or AppleCare Protection Plan to open the iBook and install a drive yourself. Since you can't buy a bare hard drive from Apple, they won't install one you've purchased somewhere else. An Apple Authorized Service Provider could install a new hard drive for you, though, without voiding your warranty.
Apple buys hard drives on the open market. If the 4,200RPM drives become constrained, they may find some 5,400RPM drives for a good price and install those for a while. Since the hard drive speed is not specified at the online Apple store, the included component can vary.
I would ask you why, exactly, you would consider the increased cost to upgrade a hard drive like this? I can edit DV and author DVDs with the 80GB 4,200RPM drive in my 1GHz G4 PowerBook. I've NEVER had an issue with my hard drive doing these kinds of operations. You should have a very good user experience with your 4,200RPM hard drive.
-Doug

Can I copy the contents of a dvd to the hard drive?

How can I copy the contents of my dvd to the hard drive? It is from a home movie that was transferred onto a DVD. I would like to send it via e-mail. is this possible?
thanks

You need to convert it first to a smaller file. You can't typically send several gigabytes of video via email. You could copy the contents of the DVD to your mobile me account by making a Disk Image of the DVD using the Disk Utility. A typical DVD is 4.7 gigabytes, so the coping will take over night. If you just want people to view the DVD movie, you might want to rip it from the DVD and put it on Youtube as a private video. I would recommend doing this with DVDxDV. It can break up a long video into multiple parts and upload it to Youtube.

CD / DVD surface scan utility / drive speed?

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