Help Retrieving Data

Help! I bought a Hitachi DZ-MV780MA because it had a nice price and I thought that inserting the disk directly into the camera would be hassle-free. So I bought two dozen 30-minute mini-disks off eBay and had no problems filming and finalizing the first fifteen or so, until last week. Then I got the dreaded "Disk Error--would you like to repair?" message, but when I tried to repair, I was told to "replace disk," so I'm assuming that my footage is lost. The next night, with a new disk, it happened again. When I researched the problem, my conclusion is that I must have pulled the plug before turning off the power to the camera, thus destroying my chances of finalizing. ANYWAY, apparently there are programs available to retrieve the data on these two disks, however I have a Macintosh and don't have a burner, so the software is of no use to me.

Does anyone out there have any suggestions? The footage is just goofy faces and laughter of my baby, but he's my first and only, so it's important to me. If anyone would be willing to try to salvage the footage for me, I'd gladly buy you dinner! (And the disks are useless as of now, so it's not like I have anything to lose if it doesn't work). Please drop me a line if you'd be willing to take a stab at it: brendamcleod at verizon dot net

ALSO--yesterday I made a little movie, but I got the message that finalization failed and wasn't complete, however I have the little icon on the screen that shows that it is final, and I no longer have the option to finalize, so do you think it actually DID complete? Thanks in advance! Brenda

I too have had the same problem. If it plays on your camera you can retrieve it but if it doesn't you can't. Its lost. I lost all of my daughters wedding shower footage because in the middle of filming it came up with that same error message. Is the discs Memorex? They are the ones that I had trouble with.According to Hitachi they recommend Maxwell Disc. I haven't tried Maxwells because I also bought a large quanity. Don't film clear to the end of disc. Finalize with a few minuts left. I contacted Hitachi and they told me to contact the service center. I also have trouble with the door jamming. See if a friend has a computer you can use to take it off. You can hook the camera to a DVD player that records and take it off.

Good Luck and Happy Filming!

I have had trouble only once with getting an error message and then not being able to finalize a DVD-R disc.
SO, what I do, is not try to finalize them UNTIL after I have burned them onto a full-size DVD.
I hook the camera with the DVD-R disc in it up to my stand-alone Sony VR DVC20 DVDirect machine (it is a free-standing DVD burner).

Go to disc navigation and get the thumbnails created and then play those scenes and burn (record) in real time onto the DVD in the Sony burner.

I then have it "backed-up" so to speak before I finalize.

Although (knock wood) I have only had difficulty trying to finalize a mini DVD-R in my HItachi DZMV550a camcorder once in about 200 discs, that once was enough to cause concern and aggravation and make me want to try to cover my behind in the future.
So, I always try to back it up first before I finalize it in the camera.