Can copying a disc harm the disc or the drive? Many not work

[thesnappysneezer]

How taxing on the disc and the drive is copying versus general playback or burning? Is it just about the same? Since I have taken this up I have found a number of discs no longer working, some I had watched not long before my attempt to copy. I just bought a dvd set, 8 discs, brand new and one does not work for one title on it. The error that showed up, I googled and was brought to a post here saying the error was about the computer not communicating right with the external dvd drive. Mine is an internal one.

Error 'OS error - STATUS_DEVICE_DATA_ERROR' occurred while reading '\Device\CdRom0' at offset '125136896'

and this is the thread the search brought up and my issue is similar.

http://www.makemkv.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=14137

This is for the 7th Disc of the Little Rascals Complete Collection.

There were more errors but I didn't copy them all and I closed the program in anger.

I pulled the disc out and it was scratched up, not just on the part with data but also on the inner ring near the center hole. I am pretty sure it wasn't like that when I put it in. I tried to copy that title individually a few times.

Now the Josie and the Pussycats disc I mentioned before in a thread does have a scratch I had not previously noted on it but was working fine before I tried to copy. I have discs from Three's Company and Remington Steele and F-Troop done the same. I have replaced some and they copied fine. Some I can't really tell a problem with visually. And I have been able to copy fine on many other dvds. Now I ran into that problem on some Bless This House DVDs and thankfully they are not scratched and play well on my dvd player hooked to my tv.

I have just ordered a new dvd drive, external, actually a blu one. I figure that will come in handy and I would rather use my internal space for another hd as I go forward. Luckily the disc in the set can be purchased individually for 5 dollars and I ordered it too. It is powered by two usb ports. Hopefully all of my problems can be blamed on my DVD drive but I have never experienced a problem with it before. So, if anyone could explain the process of this copying and is it more invasive? I figure it isn't it is just something smarter reading the DVD than your average DVD player. Anyways Thanks for all the support.

[Woodstock]

If your drive is functioning properly, theory says there should be zero wear on the disk, because nothing touches the surface.

The laser is supposedly at a low-enough level to not heat or otherwise damage the actual media embedded in the plastic.

But that's theory.

Reality is that loading/unloading a disk can damage it, especially if you eject it before it comes to a stop, or there is dirt in your tray. Early drives had special trays you mounted the disk in before putting them in the drive, but the industry decided this was too much work (and too expensive) to make DVD mainstream, so you get to live with the damage.

Ripping usually has the disk spinning at much higher speeds than playback, so any damage being done by the drive itself will be exaggerated. And any marginal areas are going to be harder to read at high speed, which is why you will hear the drive slow down when it hits a bad spot on the disk.

[Krawk]

The only times I have seen discs physically damaged by playback is when the drive itself cannot see or read the disc and the laser lens itself crashes into the disc, leaving a lovely circular scratch. Somewhat common on Xbox 360 and the original Playstation. Do other laser mechs even have the reach needed to touch the disc? I don't think so. Other possibility is disc rot but as you're seeing physical scratches as well it still may be your drive doing it.