Using QPxTool to check optical drives and media for errors
Commands
In addition to the purely graphical mode, QPxTool offers more features at the command line. The most important are called either with readdvd or qscand. The first command tries to read all data that can be rescued from a defective optical disk and saves the results as an ISO image.
In a larger environment, however, qscand proves very useful. The program searches the intranet for optical drives that you have shared with QPxTool itself. In this way, you can launch tests on your computer, without the need for a corresponding drive. You will find notes on operating the two tools in the man pages. The project website provides additional command-line switches that are built into QPxTool [2].
Conclusions
If you frequently work with optical media, you will definitely want to check out QPxTool. The software helps determine the optimal combination of media and drive and provides the correct parameters for burning. These settings can help prevent data loss occurring in the long term.
If disaster has already struck, you can reconstruct data located in defective memory areas, if necessary. QPxTool also helps you separate the wheat from the chaff when you invest in blank disks by telling you which disks are suitable for long-term archiving of important databases on the basis of a detailed analysis of the media.
Infos
- QPxTool: http://qpxtool.sourceforge.net
- Download: http://qpxtool.sourceforge.net/download.html
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