I have a collection of DVDs and CDs that I’ve been meaning to archive. However, most of them must be scratched because whenever I try to read them, they get an I/O error in a random spot of one of the 1gb files. I heard that you can do some magic with ddrescue and possibly even read them in reverse, but don’t know the limitations of that when it comes to USB DVD readers. How can I copy these reliably?
I suggest starting with a good optical drive. If the one you have is not, have a look here.
Once you have decent hardware, look for ripping software that uses libparanoia.
It has been years since I did this stuff, but I don’t think much has changed since then.
Thanks.