I want to find a piece of software that will allow me to extract data
from an optical disk, not knowing what the original software that was
used to write to it in the first place was.

A company that specialized in extracting data from optical disk
without having the original software that was used in the first place
will also do. I believe a propriatry software was used unfortunately I
don't know which one!

Thanks.

Thierry

Hello -

Important note: this answer is not finished until you're satisfied
with it.  If you choose to rate this answer, I ask that you do so
after asking for any necessary clarification/information.  Thanks for
your understanding.

http://www.go-download.com/152.htm
ParseRat File Parser.  "Free yourself from re-keying legacy data. Use
ParseRat™ v2.0 to extract usable data from just about anything or to
convert measurements..."

http://www.optinfo.com/Optinfo.cfm?ShowSection=Clients
Optinfo makes a product called nBalance.  Not entirely sure it will
work for your application, but it appears this product does extraction
on some level:  "nBalance allows you to define the format of any input
file: reports, data from spreadsheets and databases, or output from
other processes or applications. A powerful graphical interface helps
you locate data fields in an input file quickly and easily -- in the
same way you would use a highlight marker to identify data on a
report. After you highlight the information with nBalance, you can
even use data from multiple lines and pages to create detail or
summary transaction records.  Give us a sample of your data. Tell us
what you need to do with it. We’ll create a custom demo using your
numbers. You can view it in a no-risk, no-obligation presentation, and
see how nBalance works for yourself."

http://www.dtidata.com/index.asp
DTI Data does data recovery and extraction.  They have a software
product called Extract It which will extract the readable text from
any file: http://www.dtidata.com/Products_extract.asp.  Contact them
at
1-866-GETMYDATA and see if they'll be able to help you.  

http://www.capitallegals.com/ediscovery.htm
Capital Legal Solutions says they do what you're looking for:
"Extract information from any computer; we extract information from
any type of electronic device ( Desktops, Laptops, Electronic
Organizers, Hand-held computers, Voicemail / E-mail systems and
Network Servers).
Extract data and documents from various electronic media & formats
We extract data and documents contained on various forms of electronic
media without the loss of information and convert into any format a
client wishes. We can handle information on Hard Drives, DLT Tapes,
CDs & DVDs, Jaz Discs and Zipped media. We conduct defensible,
high-speed searches of electronic data sets. We can extract relevant
information for litigation."

 
Search Strategy:
"extract data" "any format"
data extraction 
extract "from any file"

---

Request for Answer Clarification by thierryf-ga on 08 May 2003 03:39 PDT

Hi jbf777-ga,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! I should have mentioned that
optical disks are a special case when it comes down to accessing their
data. You cannot do so using a software where you simply do a file
open, then hope it will fix the data. It is not about extracting data
from file, it is about extracting/exporting the physical file from the
optical to a hard drive.

You require special software (i.e. Legato - DiskXtender, is one of
them!) to read and write to these disks! So what I'm more hoping for,
is for a company or some sort of hacking software that will support
optical jukebox (j) or single (s) optical disk. Once they support
optical disk (j or s), then I want to know if they can extract/export
the data from it.

I have already contacted the two companies you mentioned below i.e.
dtidata and capitallegal. Hopefully, they will confirm to me that they
can do what I'm looking for.

Unfortunately, the likes of ParseRat, nBalance are not appropriate
because it is assume that you have access to the physical data which
is not the case.

Maybe only company dealing in low level recovery or
extracting/exporting may be the only solution as maybe they can access
the physical data at a low level!

The data I'm trying to extract are tiff images, but as mentioned (I
think!), it looks like they may have used a propriatry piece of
software to write to it, and I don't know which one they have used!

Anyway, if you find any more information related to exporting physical
data/files from optical without knowing the jukebox management
software that was used, let me know and I'll let you know asap how I
got on with these two companies.

Many Thanks.

Thierry

---

Clarification of Answer by jbf777-ga on 08 May 2003 10:10 PDT

Thierry-

Thanks for the clarification.  I've talked to a rep at Vogon
International, who says she thinks they can do it.  Talk to them about
a "conversion quote":

Vogon International LLC,
Riverside Center, Suite 2623,
2600 Van Buren, Norman, OK 73072, USA
Tel: +1 405 321 2585, Fax: +1 405 364 8242
Toll Free: 1-800 392-5373
email: data.recovery@vogon.us
http://www.vogon-international.com/data%20recovery/contacts-00.htm
[you need a conversion quote]

In addition, here are some other companies that may provide similar
services:

1st Data Recovery
http://www.1stdatarecovery.com/main_USA.htm?referrer=google

On Track
http://www.ontrack.com/

Additional Link:
Do It Yourself Data Recovery
http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/~tkuurstra/

Please don't hesitate to ask if you need additional
clarification/info.

Thanks,

jbf777-ga
GA Researcher

---

Request for Answer Clarification by thierryf-ga on 08 May 2003 11:41 PDT

Hi Jbf777,

I have send e-mail as well to the three other companies you have
listed, but I could not access the last website i.e.

http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/~tkuurstra/ 

I'll wait an see if one of them will get back to me!

Thanks. Keep you posted and may ask more of you later (if you don't
mind!) on this issue!

Thanks.

Thierry.

---

Clarification of Answer by jbf777-ga on 08 May 2003 11:51 PDT

Thierry -

No problem!  I'm here to help...
 
As for that website, you can disregard that one.  Upon second look,
their products won't quite cut it.  Don't know why you can't access
it?  The link works fine from here...

I might also call these companies too, as it may be easier to convey
your needs over the phone.

jbf777-ga
GA Researcher

---

Request for Answer Clarification by thierryf-ga on 08 May 2003 15:00 PDT

Hi again,

Can you try to find me companies that will do what I have explained
but it seems that rather than data recovery it is called conversion??
The problem I'm with now is the cost of this! I was just quoted an
enourmous price per disk which definitely would not be feasable for us
or our client, but I guess that's our problem not yours!

Anyway, maybe you'll have more specific sites if you research with the
conversion in mind and optical disk being the 2 critical factors here.

Thanks.

T.

---

Clarification of Answer by jbf777-ga on 08 May 2003 19:16 PDT

Give these a shot:

Universal Conversion Services, Inc.
http://www.ucsidata.com/
2931-H Eskridge Rd.
Fairfax, VA 22031
877-854-9685 Toll Free
703-289-3005

EmagSolutions
http://www.emaglink.com/convertMain.htm#one
eMag Solutions
3495 Piedmont Road
Eleven Piedmont Center, Suite 500
Atlanta, Georgia 30305
Phone: 800-364-9838
  404-995-6060
Fax: 800-334-8273
  404-872-8247

Intermedia
http://www.intermedia.uk.com/
Waterside Centre
North Street
Lewes
East Sussex
BN7 2PE
UK
Tel +44 (0)1273 478725
Fax +44 (0)1273 471669

National Data Conversion Institute
http://www.ndci.com/
5 East 16th Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10003
Phone/E-Mail
Toll Free: (877) 777-NDCI, or  (212) 463-7511
Fax (212) 645-9327
E-Mail info@ndci.com.

Very good and quick at getting back and with general good information
considering the question that was put in the first place. So once
again, thanks for your help. I must say the Search Strategy got me
thinking differently! Great! Job well done!

Hello Thierry, I see you are using this wonderful ga service I recommended.
Dont forget to rate highly any "excellent" answer you receive. Kind regards
from: Roger

Sorry I've just added a lot of comment under 'Add clarification'. Let
me know whether I should put it under comment or 'Clarification' for
next time. Thanks.

Thierry

Thierry -

You did it correctly.  The Request for Clarification [RFC] is where
you'll want to post any requests for clarification on the answer, or
to clarify your own question.  This is only open to the questioner and
the researcher.  The comment section is a general comments area open
to everyone.

jbf777-ga
GA Researcher

Hi jbf777-ga,

Thank you very much for all you help! It has been an interesting
couple of days or so! I got to talk to many of these companies, and
some were of interest while others weren't!

I guess it was partially my fault since I did not quite know how to go
about descriptiong 100% what I wanted to do! Anyway, if you want to
close this log, go ahead as I have found what I was looking for (I
think!). The specific software used to read/write to optical jukebox
used a set of API, which I never though of mentioning, and the minute
I did a search for optical disk API, I found the answer I was looking
for.

Anyway, 

Many thanks, and I'm sure we will talk again soon!

Thierry

PS: I hope tip is ok!

Thierry -

It was my pleasure to help you!  Let me know if you need any
additional assistance.

Thank you very much for the *excellent* tip!

jbf777-ga