CDCheck 3.1.14

CDCheck is a Windows utility by Mitja Perko that checks CDs and DVDs for unreadable files and pulls back whatever data it can from damaged discs.

Its newest release is 3.1.14 from October 2008, and although the developer's website is still online, no new version has appeared since.

It is free for personal use, and a free registration removes the reminder screen that appears after 30 days.

What CDCheck Actually Does

The readability check reads every file on a disc and lists the ones that fail, before you discover the problem the hard way. The binary compare checks a disc against the original folder bit by bit, which is the surest way to confirm a backup burned correctly.

It can also create checksum files, small fingerprints of your data that a later check compares against. If a file has changed or decayed since you burned it, the checksum no longer matches and CDCheck tells you which one.

Recovery mode retries bad sectors as many times as you allow and copies out what it can read. Some files will come back incomplete or not at all, because a badly scratched or decayed disc is not always readable.

Who Can Still Use It

CDCheck suits anyone with a shelf of burned backup discs from the 2000s who wants to know what still reads. The developer's site last confirmed Windows 10 compatibility in 2017 and says nothing about Windows 11, so try it before you rely on it.

The tell that it is the wrong tool: your files live on a hard drive or USB stick, not a disc. CDCheck works on optical media, and checking those drives is a different job.

What to Use Instead

Few disc checkers are still maintained, so the list below says plainly which ones are and which are frozen.

• AnyBurn is free and still updated in 2026. It can test a disc surface for unreadable sectors and copy a disc sector by sector to an image file.
• ImgBurn has a Verify mode that compares a burned disc byte for byte against its source image. It has been frozen since 2013 but still runs on Windows 10 and 11.
• Nero DiscSpeed runs free disc quality scans that show error rates before a disc fails outright. The version here dates from 2015.
• IsoPuzzle rescues data from scratched discs by reading them over several passes, even on different drives. It works on data discs only, not audio CDs.
• dvdisaster adds error-correction data while a disc is still healthy, so its contents can be rebuilt later. The version here is from 2012.

For new burns, the simplest check happens at burn time. BurnAware Free is a maintained burner for home use, and CDBurnerXP verifies each disc after burning, although its final version came out in 2019.

For music CDs, Exact Audio Copy is built to read scratched audio discs accurately and reports tracks it could not read cleanly.

To fingerprint files without extra software, Windows PowerShell has a built-in command, Get-FileHash, that prints a checksum for any file.

For more disc tools, browse our Media Utilities category, or the Burning Tools category for burners.

Quick questions

Download CDCheck 3.1.14 if you still need it, or tell us what you used it for if you have history with it.