Bad CD?

Good People:

I searched the archives and couldn't find this particular issue. If it already exists, I apologize - please post a link.

An elderly gentlemen who volunteers in my department at work brought in two CDs he made of digital pictures he had taken of his vacations. He couldn't get them to open and wanted to know if I could help. The facts as he told them to me:

1. He created these two CDs several months ago and was able to access them previously.
2. Last week, his computer crashed (a Gateway). Through the use of technical assistance he was able to get things going again.
3. After reformatting his hard drive, a CD/RW drive he had installed wasn't being recognized by his computer. Again, with a few phone calls he was able to get that problem solved.
4. Since this happened, he hasn't been able to access these two CDs anymore. He has mentioned getting an error message when he tries to view them. He then brought them in to me.

I tried accessing them on my laptop at work and my computer wouldn't recognize the CDs either. So now, I'm at home and I'm getting the same "Please insert a disk into drive F:" errors I did at work. My computer simply doesn't recognize that there is a CD in there. I've tried downloading some file recovery programs - but they don't recognize the CDs either! These are imation discs, so they're not completely bottom-of-the-barrel types.

I don't get it. I mean, I could understand one CD going bad, but two? He's tried using CDs from the same batch with no problem. So I'm bringing this to you, hoping that someone out there has either a suggestion or a program recommendation that could help me help him. He's in his early 70's, and I feel for him as this is the only copy he has of his trip photos.

TIA,

Adrian

 

two things come to mind: when I first started buring CD-r's, I used to leave them open (not finalized) because I really didn't know I was supposed to close them out when filled. I found out the hard way that once I moved to other computers/burning softwares, those CD's have now become coasters - nothing will read them.

Did the gentleman make sure he reinstalled the same version of his burning software that he had on the PC when he burned these two disks?

Also, it is possible that the crash was just coincidental - is there any possibility that these two CD's have come near magnetic fields? That will certainly wipe out existing data.

MBN

 

I would go for the burning software point. It is likely that they were not finalized, therefore unreadable by anything but the computer that wrote them. You will need more info about how they were burned in the first place.

CD cannot be demagnetized. Once the dye layer is burned it can't be changed.

 

Uh-Hmmmm - finalized?
I've just spent some time sifting thro' the available info regarding CD burning and stumbled on this thread. I'm not too sure what "finalizing" means. Is a process that has to be completed by the operator or is it an automatic function of the burning process?
I ask this because although I've had some considerable success with burning CD's, I've never (knowingly!) finalized the process.
Have I just been lucky?

 

"Finalizing" depends on the software used to burn to the disc.
"Generally" if you burn a "Music CD" the software will convert your MP3 files into a playable format and finalize the disc automatically.
If you are burning other types of files (data CD) then you will have to tell the software to finalize the disc.
Different software have different ways of going about that.
If you don't finalize the disc usually only the originating computer can read them, or at least one with the same software version.
None of this is written in stone..........they are all different and require different input for the operator.

 

Thanx Longhair, I think that I've just been lucky. I've been going thru the help files for the software that I'm using and can't find anything about "fianalizing"
Would another name for the same thing be "lead out"? -('show's how little I know about the subject!)

 

I don't think they refer to it as "finalizing", I believe most software refer to is as closing the session. You can make multiple sessions to CD-R's as long as the available capacity allows it. Closing a session makes the seeion permanent so no other files can be written to it.