I've backed up some mp3's onto DVD and now I want to restore them. The problem is the fact that the drive/s are being very temperemantal in reading...I've tried a dvd-rw and a dvd-rom to read the discs but it will not just continually read and copy the files to the HD...sometimes i get a directory list, sometimes it wont at all, some files copy, sometimes the same files wont copy etc... I guess this can be attributed to poor media, but is there any ways anyone can think of (since it physically CAN read the files as it sometimes does...) to force read or make a forced image of the drive then mount it and read from hd or somethin...

thanks for reading, and bigger thanks to the genius who can solve my backup woes!

You would get a lot more help if you gave some specific information ie. O/S , authoring Software brand.
Often the brand of media can cause issues but ususally you will know immediately as the software most often won't write or won't play period. Since you state that yours is sometimey you may need to check property sheets on the files for security conflicts or maybe updates to firmware on your writer etc.