Save A CD-RW

[airbornflght]

Alright, I have a CD-RW that my youthgroup at my church had been using before they got a jump drive, but the thing is, he had some pictures that he needs to get off of the CD but he couldn't so he gave it to me.

I stuck the CD in and it says that its blank but I know its not and he says that he didnt format it or anything, although I don't know anyhting about CD-rw's cause I don't use them.

Is there anyway to get the pics on them that would be otherwise lost. :scratch: I've stuck it in and canceled all the crap about writing a cd, and just went to explore the CD and its blank. no folders files, zip zeroe nada.

Help is appreciated.

~Andy

[shwaip]

some cd drives can't read -rws. try a cd burner if you haven't already.

[airbornflght]

thats what I am. Its says That total space and free space are both 11.9 mb, this means the pictures must still be on there. Are they in a different session or something? I dont know how to do anything with these things.

[airbornflght]

Come on people,speak up, I know there is at least one person that knows a little something about this.

[Thrax]

Install Nero's CD session manager. It allows you to select multiple sessions on a CD-RW via right-clicking the drive in explorer. I don't know the exact name of the program.

[Tex]

What OS are you using? Thrax may well be onto something as some OS's are unable to read data on a multi-session cd.

Tex

[airbornflght]

I using XP pro, I thought I might be able to get the pics off of their by using adobe's browse feature but it didnt work. I'm gonna try the session manager. I just gotta get these off of here. A whole years worth of pics.

[CB]

What program was used to write the files to the disk?

[Tex]

xp pro should work fine. it's staritng to sound like someone erased that disk. If you want to be sure and are not real technical you can send me the disk and I'll check it out for you.

tex

[airbornflght]

I found it, its called multimounter :wtf: but anyways do you mean the nero explorer or windows explorer. im thinking nero's but I'll probably have found it by the time you post. Hopefully this works.

[airbornflght]

XP proprietary little built-in. nothing fancy, I didnt even know it could handle CD-RW's???, but how could the disc have been erased if it says that only 11.9 mb is free??? and he said he didnt, he doesnt know a lot about computers but I think he knows enough to know what he did.

[airbornflght]

do you want me to physically send the disc to you or send an ISO if I cant figure it out here.

[airbornflght]

holly crap, i went to nero and said continue multi session and it found seven sessions on the disc right now, I just gotta access them, gett em of off there and stick 'em on a trusty CD-rw.

[airbornflght]

hmmmmm....I thought maybe it'd let me access a track and I could get the files off of there a track at a time, but it said "Error reading disc, disc may be corrupt"

[airbornflght]

I tried the first track on the first session instead of the first track on the last session and it opened it up, but the files were showing as a piece of paper with a dog-eared corner and a red "X" over it. and I couldnt copy the files anywhere. There is one track per sesion. Any ideas???

[airbornflght]

So this proves that the disc has not been erased. I just need to get the files off of it.

[airbornflght]

how does the multi mouter work? I cant figure it out. I modified the reg key corectly and put both files in the right folder and sent the reg key to the reg. but how do you view the sessions?

[edcentric]

What software was used to write it?
Was it some propritary crap?
It sounds like the dir layout is unreadable.

[airbornflght]

I said earlier that it was XP's built in writing software. what is the dir layout. I'm presuming that the cd has a file system stored as a file?

[profdlp]

Do you have Nero? You could try the Disc Info tool to see what it tells you about file system, closed or not closed, etc.

[airbornflght]

Straight from the horses mouth, here it is:

Nero InfoTool 3.02

Disc Information (D:\)
-------------------
Type : Data CD (Mode 2)
Capacity : 77:04.46 (677 MB)
Tracks : 7
Sessions : 7
CD-R(W) Info : Infodisc, 10 X CD-RW, 79:59.73

File System : ISO9660, Joliet
Title : Early2005Pix
Date : 27 April 2005
Publisher : n/a
Application : n/a


Disc Information (E:\)
-------------------
Type : - no disc inserted -


Does that change anyhting or open up some more posibilities, or does it make things worse?

[profdlp]

Do this at your own risk! :cool:

If I were in your position I would try this:

1) See if you can use the disc copy part of Nero and duplicate the disc on another CD-RW. Don't use a plain CD-R, as you want to leave the original intact in case this doesn't work.

2) Using the copy you made, open Nero and write one more session to the disc. Make sure the new session is one single very small file. When you start the burn, make sure you tell Nero to Close the disc. Depending on your version, you may need to uncheck the box saying "Allow files to be added later (multisession disc)"

3) When done, open and close the CD drive to force Windows to refresh the info, cross your fingers, then see what you get.

If you're lucky, having the disc be closed will make all of the data available. If not, you still have your original disc with which to try something else.

[Tex]

or send me the disc. If its possible to get the data off I can. And for sure I won't jack it up.

Tex

[airbornflght]

I'm gonna go to staples tomorrow and buy a CD-RW for $0.50 or whatever outrageous amount they charge for ONE cd there, and hope it works, if not, Ill have to send the disc to tex, cause im runnin' out of things to do. But I keep on wondering why when I could see that track earlier it wouldnt let me copy the files anywhere. Made me wanna kick my computer. Sometimes I think it has a mind of its own.

[airbornflght]

ahhhhh.... I Just woke up after staying till 2:30 or something but anyways, Im gonna make my way to staples af I wake up a bit.

[airbornflght]

argh.... so much for 50 cents... ha ha ha. I guess staples decided to stop selling just single disc, so I had to buy a three pack of sonys for $5, that a $1.80 a piece after taxes. anyway , im about to go try it and see if it will work.

[airbornflght]

well, I didnt need to buy those cd's after all, I couldnt get the disc to copy all the way, it kept hangin, so i just burned a txt file on the original and told it to finalize the disc, and it worked. I have all the pics off of the disc and safely on a CD-R awaiting transfer to a HDD.

Thx for all the help guys, now the pics for half a year are safe, and I'm gonna tell him to start dumping them on the HDD and use a CD only as a backup instead as a stand alone.

[profdlp]

Glad you got it. :)

...now the pics for half a year are safe, and I'm gonna tell him to start dumping them on the HDD and use a CD only as a backup instead as a stand alone.
Here's a good backup strategy, and you can even put your three new CD-RW's to good use:

1) Label one of the CD-RW's "Weekly" and burn a new multisession track every week of all your new pics. Update it every week by adding a new session.

2) Take the two other CD-RW's and label them "Even" & "Odd". At the beginning of every odd-numbered month (Jan, Mar, May, etc), burn all of your pics to a Closed session on the disc marked (duh) "Odd". Do the same for the even-numbered months (Feb, Apr, Jun, etc) using the disc marked (double-duh) "Even".

3) After your monthly update of either the "Even" or the "Odd" disc, erase the Weekly disc and repeat the weekly multisession cycle. Verify your data before the format.

This will give you some redundancy in your backups should the HD decide to croak on you. (Which I assure you it will do at some point.)

[airbornflght]

most likely. I think I might do that, Right now, I'm just backin them up to CD-R's when I get the notion to, since I buy them at staples with a rebate and get them for next to nothing. Probably should back them up more often, especially since I'm gonna be getting my new camera soon.

[Grond]

CD-RW's are not for long term storage, I learned that lesson myself the hard way a few years ago. They are useful for daily backups but keep in mind they do wear out. For long term storage use a CD-R. For valuable info redundancy is a good thing.

[RiversCuomo]

Holy **** airborn...there's an edit button.

[airbornflght]

????

[airbornflght]

ya lost me there rivers
:scratch:

[profdlp]

I think he's suggesting that rather than making post after post just minutes apart to add new information, you could edit your most recent post to reflect the updated info.

At one point you had eight posts in a row. It would make it easier to read (and easier for us to help you) if you had done something like this:

I found it, its called multimounter :wtf: but anyways do you mean the nero explorer or windows explorer. im thinking nero's but I'll probably have found it by the time you post. Hopefully this works.

EDIT:

XP proprietary little built-in. nothing fancy, I didnt even know it could handle CD-RW's???, but how could the disc have been erased if it says that only 11.9 mb is free??? and he said he didnt, he doesnt know a lot about computers but I think he knows enough to know what he did.

do you want me to physically send the disc to you or send an ISO if I cant figure it out here.

holly crap, i went to nero and said continue multi session and it found seven sessions on the disc right now, I just gotta access them, gett em of off there and stick 'em on a trusty CD-rw.

hmmmmm....I thought maybe it'd let me access a track and I could get the files off of there a track at a time, but it said "Error reading disc, disc may be corrupt"

I tried the first track on the first session instead of the first track on the last session and it opened it up, but the files were showing as a piece of paper with a dog-eared corner and a red "X" over it. and I couldnt copy the files anywhere. There is one track per sesion. Any ideas???

So this proves that the disc has not been erased. I just need to get the files off of it.

how does the multi mouter work? I cant figure it out. I modified the reg key corectly and put both files in the right folder and sent the reg key to the reg. but how do you view the sessions?

I'm not hollering at you, just trying to advise you on the best way to get help. If there are no responses for a day or two it's OK to bump your own thread - just don't do it every ten minutes. :)

[airbornflght]

heh he h heh....spose your right...Ill do that in the future ;D