How Do I Upload a DVD to My Computer?

By Mikhail Polenin

Updated September 28, 2017

A DVD with stored information.

Most operating systems that were made since the year 2001 contain inbuilt advanced functions, such as the ability to play DVDs, and even burn a copy of them. As well as these functions, computers also have the ability to copy files from a DVD to the hard drive. The process is simple, and involves a few short steps.

Third Party Software

If you have Windows XP or newer, you will not need any specialized software to help you copy the contents of a DVD to your hard drive. However, older operating systems might not recognize that you have put a DVD into your drive, regardless of whether it is a DVD drive or not. To solve this problem, you will have to purchase a third party program that will interact with your DVD drive for you, such as Nero.

Using the Operating System's Inbuilt Functions

You can explore DVDs the exact same way that you explore your hard drive in operating systems that recognize DVDs. Copying information from your DVD to the hard drive in Windows XP or newer is no more complicated than a simple drag-and-drop operation on your computer. The average time it takes to copy a file depends on how fast your DVD drive reads a disc.

To upload a DVD to your computer, you must first insert the disc you want to copy and wait a short period of time until the drive lights stop blinking. The reason the lights blink is because your drive is trying to determine what is stored on the disc and what the disc's label is, among other things.

Open up "My Computer" from your computer's desktop. You should see your drive with either an icon of a disc or any other icon that the disc might have. Right-click the icon pertaining to the disc and click "Open." This will display the contents of the disc. All you have to do now is select all of the contents and drag them from the disc to the folder to which you would like to copy them.

The process might take anywhere from less than a minute to over an hour, depending on the speed of the drive and how much information you have requested for copy. The key is to be patient, since DVDs are not as fast as hard drives.

Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) Errors

Although a little exaggerated, this is exactly what will cause CRC errors.

You might encounter an error copying called a Cyclic Redundancy Check error. This normally happens when the disc is corrupt or unreadable.Try copying the disc again. If this doesn't work, try cleaning the disc with an appropriate disc cleaner. This error might also be caused by physical damage to the disc, such as scratches. Unfortunately, there is no way to correct the problem when your disc is damaged. You can prevent such a thing from happening again by buying cases for your DVDs and handling them carefully.

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