Should I even try to read this CD?

Post by **empireum** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 12:59 am

Tidying up my basement after a long time revealed an old CD with a "data" side that was really in great condition...

The picture's a bit too bright, it really looks even worse in reality. So, what do you think, should I even try to get the (somewhere else backed up) data off of it, or am I doing the best by throwing it out immediately?

Post by **KenOath** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 1:11 am

I recently received a couple of Cd's of Starter From India, bought at a
very cheap price, paid for express postage & received them within a week only
to find the data sides of the 2 were placed together, with what looked
like dust or maybe even dirt, they were totally unreadable in any
system & in dos...
I took them down to the local Video Easy store & had them polish the 2
in their DVD scratch remover, cost all of 5 dollars...
I swear you'd think the Cd's were in fact brand new now, never been used...
Yet when I'd received them I nearly crushed them on the spot with
frustration, damn lucky I didn't...

Do you have a local Video/DVD rental store, check to see if he has a
polisher, most do here to remove scratches from their hire DVDs...

Post by **empireum** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 1:19 am

Thanks, I will investigate further on that issue,

Post by **Beta Freak** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 1:33 am

I would get it cleaned up but I also read somewhere white toothpaste is good for removing scratches.

Post by **KenOath** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 1:34 am

empireum wrote:And, erm, could you maybe tell me where you got these Starter CDs from? I've been searching back and forth with no luck.

A shite load of emails to a shite load of Indian businesses, until one day
I got a reply...
In seeing the condition of the 2 disks though I would think that they
were damaged stock as one disk was absolutely stuffed whilst the
other was half as bad, although they did turn up in what looked like
a very dusty case, albeit an original MS packaged one...
Now they both look brand new thanks to the local Video store...

The MS sight in India is the best place to start looking for distributors of
this as it turned out...
& don't bother asking MS, I did, they'll only reply saying they only send
this to an address in India, All emails from all MS locations said the same
thing as if it were a standard response....

Post by **Andy** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:56 am

You will be able to read that disk if you get my laptop My laptop works wonders at reading cracked, scratched, arse-wiped disks

Seriously, it read a disk of mine that I had no backup of and it had a crack through it! You could bend it and it would come apart. The laptop still read it. I praised it after that.

Post by **XDude** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 12:34 pm

Andy wrote:You will be able to read that disk if you get my laptop My laptop works wonders at reading cracked, scratched, arse-wiped disks

Seriously, it read a disk of mine that I had no backup of and it had a crack through it! You could bend it and it would come apart. The laptop still read it. I praised it after that.

now, that's an awesome drive!

Post by **empireum** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:41 pm

@Andy
If I had a disk like that, I wouldn't dare insert it into any drive because I would be afraid of destroying the CD and the drive...

Post by **Evan** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 9:06 pm

Try reading it, as long as nothing is loose on the disc its not going to hurt the drive. I don't think the cleaning idea will work because there seems to be a part of the track missing - ripped off from the other side, irreparable and possibly will make this disc unreadable.

Post by **Antz** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 9:49 pm

you can try to polish the CD with cheap tooth paste,
with a soft tissue and no water, only the paste
but it's a bit of hard work until you get it mirror-smoothly

Post by **___** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 7:57 pm

toothpaste sounds wrong ?
you can but scratch removing stuff from stores. I know a few game stores offer scratch removal, but im not sure if they will fix a cd-r cause it might be an illegal disc

Post by **tpemail** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 9:32 pm

I remember that I've seen something called "CD fixer" before...Claimed to be able to fix VCDs that have reading errors (causing the player lag, skip or else)
Doesn't know if it really works though....
And it's not often seen either...

Post by **IsaacD** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:58 pm

That CD is damaged beyond all repair, you would only be wasting your time attempting to get data off it.

From looking at it, it only has 20 or so MB of data on it, and the damage is right on that section.

And worse, it's damaged the very first of the track, the CRC section of the CD, it's useless without it.

Toothpaste does not actually work, because it gets into the crash, and blocks that section of the CD being read.

Post by **moonlit** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 1:53 am

Excuse me for sounding a little gross here, but I find I can make an unreadable CD readable enough by err... spitting on it, then using those foam inserts you get in CD spools folded in half to polish it in using circular motions, kinda like waxing a car, only faster and in smaller circles, then drying with a soft piece of fabric... I 'fixed' a couple of CDs recently using this method, worked a treat.