Solve : Photo / CD-R problems?

1.	Solve : Photo / CD-R problems?
Answer» I don't know if I've got three out of three bad CD's or what the PROBLEM is, but, I burned a bunch of my JPG image files onto these GigaWare brand CD-R's and now, I can't 'read' maybe 1/3 of the pictures. I did this about a year, year and a half ago, trying to save my 'important' pictures I've made. At the time of burning, everything seemed to work okay. But now, I have 3 CD's and can't get a big portion of my images back. The files that are readable, I copied back to my HD and I will try another brand of CD, but, I'm wondering what, if anything can be done with possibly corrupt files on these CD's? I would love to get my pictures back, but nothing I've tried seems to work. I tried using Picassa to load all of them...it locks up. Tried Paint, and Image PreViewer, and MS Camera and Scanner wizard. Same thing, or else it says it can't read the file and I have to SKIP it to continue with the rest. I've used Windows XP on ONE computer, and the program reading the pics from the CD "quits responding" - and the same thing for a Windows Vista system. These CD's have been protected in sleeves, in the dark, in a cool house, I can't think of anything physical that could have scrambled or messed them up. Any easy ideas to try and get files from a CD that is apparently messed up? You could try one or more "Bad CD recovery" applications such as CD Recovery Toolbox. http://billmullins.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/bad-cd-or-dvd-recover-the-data-with-free-cd-recovery-toolbox/ I have tried three different data recovery/cd fix/cd repair type programs, and all they did was copy all the files from my CD to my HD. The 'bad ones', were still bad, and unusable, so that didn't help at all. Oddly to me, is how the bad files looked. I could access them now, but, they are scrambled images. They make me think of a photo that's been pushed through a shredder and the strips are all out of place. Some of them are almost viewable - they look like one of the old scrambled/sliding square picture games I used to play as a child. Where you keep sliding squares around until they are in their correct place, then, it looks like what it is supposed to. Very weird. I guess there is nothing I can do with these, is there? It really annoying to lose pictures that I was 'trying' to save, and prevent this exact thing! The trouble is, CD and DVS don't last forever. When optical disks first arrived, there was a lot of hype about how the data was safe for decades, that kind of stuff. In the early '90s when the first CD-R disc was introduced manufacturers said the media had a data life in excess of 40 years. In the late 90s when the first DVDR discs appeared on the scene producers proclaimed a data life of at least 100 years. However, this has not always turned out to be true. Factors affecting data life include: the manufacturer's materials and quality of assembly, user handling and storage, exposure to excess heat, light or humidity. I have seen recommendations to store burned disks upright (not horizontally) and in jewel cases. Have you tried a different drive in another computer? You can buy "Archival quality" disks at a premium price, but the only way to see if they really do perform as claimed is to wait a number of years. Are the file formats of the pictures that you cannot view different than the ones on the disc that you can. Do you remember what program you used to create them? truenorthThanks for your responses and trying to help......... I've tried reading the CD's on three different computers, including the one they were burned with originally. They all do the same thing - either say the file is unreadable, or else freeze the computer. About the age and wearing out over time...I can't imagine the three CD's would go bad this quickly - it has only been maybe 2 1/2 years at most? Its suspicious to me, that it happened on three consecutive CD's I was burning while trying to ARCHIVE my images. They are all .JPG format picture files. Quote About the age and wearing out over time...I can't imagine the three CD's would go bad this quickly - it has only been maybe 2 1/2 years at most? You better start imagining, 'cos it's happened. It is not unknown. Quote Its suspicious to me, that it happened on three consecutive CD's Same: brand, cakebox, manuf. batch, storage location? What you could probably do for now is to load those CD to a DVD player that can read jpeg file formats. See what comes up.Quote from: Salmon Trout on August 17, 2011, 03:59:21 PM Same: brand, cakebox, manuf. batch, storage location? + same burner? Thanks to everyone who replied. Its just a weird problem to, and while I can't believe or imagine my bad luck here, I guess I have to! I used three different data restore programs, and one of them ran for almost 36 hours! Still....1/3 of my pics were of the sliding puzzle variety, in other words, unsalvagable. I tried it in a DVD player, and it wouldn't/couldn't read the files. Yes, they were all the same brand and stack of CD's - Gigaware brand. All the otherones I have given away with pictures on them, to family and friends! Uh-oh. Sorry everybody! I just wonder if the total size of all the files could have made any difference? I mean, all three of these were pretty well crammed full - there was little or almost do free SPACE left on the CD. Could that make anything more likely to get scrambled? Say for example, if I had put 500 MB instead of 650 to 700 MB of picture data on there? "I just wonder if the total size of all the files could have made any difference? " For the type of files you noted that would be "no". Certain very large audio files such as putting the equivalent of 10-20 long playing albums on a cd or dvd disc as one track can cause a delay before the disc will play but it will still play if you wait out the delay. A question that has not been asked yet nor do i see you making a reference to it is was there ever a time after the initial "burning" that you were able to view these photos? It won't help you with this problem now but a practice i try to always do is view the disc immediately after burning so if there is a problem i can deal with it before i assume everything is fine and delete the data i intended to store. I think if it could be demonstrated your issue arose right at the time of burning. There are many factors that could have caused that to happen then.truenorthHey, about the checking them right after writing them...I can't remember, there is a chance I didn't. In the past, I usually do try them out after burning. But on these three, I may have been sort of lax in checking. I don't know. This time, I burned the files I was able to read onto new CD's (Memorex brand), did them slow too. I always burn slower than the max speed, usually about 16x, but this time I went 8x, and made the Ashampoo program verify them as it wrote. It took a good deal longer, but, it did work. I checked them this time, right after burning, and then on another computer as well. I hope these last longer than 2 1/2 years! Thanks for the comments and suggestions on this little annoying problem. It got a bunch of my photos I already miss....but on the good side....At least it didn't scramble my UFO and Big Foot and Loch Ness photos! Well being as we are human we CAN/DO make mistakes (re your maybe NOT checking them). Yes i have found that burning at slower speed can often eliminate problems. I have used some of the commercial Ashampoo software for burning and did occasionally have issues. Have stopped using it altogether and now for audio and data/pictures (not video) my preferred is a free software called CDBURNERXP. It is often recommended here on the CH forums. Have yet to have an issue with it. I use another (also free) software for video. Have many bought ones for both but i have had great success from the free ones i use. truenorth

Answer»

I don't know if I've got three out of three bad CD's or what the PROBLEM is, but, I burned a bunch of my JPG image files onto these GigaWare brand CD-R's and now, I can't 'read' maybe 1/3 of the pictures.

I did this about a year, year and a half ago, trying to save my 'important' pictures I've made. At the time of burning, everything seemed to work okay. But now, I have 3 CD's and can't get a big portion of my images back.

The files that are readable, I copied back to my HD and I will try another brand of CD, but, I'm wondering what, if anything can be done with possibly corrupt files on these CD's? I would love to get my pictures back, but nothing I've tried seems to work.

I tried using Picassa to load all of them...it locks up. Tried Paint, and Image PreViewer, and MS Camera and Scanner wizard. Same thing, or else it says it can't read the file and I have to SKIP it to continue with the rest. I've used Windows XP on ONE computer, and the program reading the pics from the CD "quits responding" - and the same thing for a Windows Vista system. These CD's have been protected in sleeves, in the dark, in a cool house, I can't think of anything physical that could have scrambled or messed them up.

Any easy ideas to try and get files from a CD that is apparently messed up? You could try one or more "Bad CD recovery" applications such as CD Recovery Toolbox.

http://billmullins.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/bad-cd-or-dvd-recover-the-data-with-free-cd-recovery-toolbox/

I have tried three different data recovery/cd fix/cd repair type programs, and all they did was copy all the files from my CD to my HD. The 'bad ones', were still bad, and unusable, so that didn't help at all.
Oddly to me, is how the bad files looked. I could access them now, but, they are scrambled images. They make me think of a photo that's been pushed through a shredder and the strips are all out of place. Some of them are almost viewable - they look like one of the old scrambled/sliding square picture games I used to play as a child. Where you keep sliding squares around until they are in their correct place, then, it looks like what it is supposed to.

Very weird. I guess there is nothing I can do with these, is there? It really annoying to lose pictures that I was 'trying' to save, and prevent this exact thing!
The trouble is, CD and DVS don't last forever. When optical disks first arrived, there was a lot of hype about how the data was safe for decades, that kind of stuff. In the early '90s when the first CD-R disc was introduced manufacturers said the media had a data life in excess of 40 years. In the late 90s when the first DVDR discs appeared on the scene producers proclaimed a data life of at least 100 years. However, this has not always turned out to be true. Factors affecting data life include: the manufacturer's materials and quality of assembly, user handling and storage, exposure to excess heat, light or humidity. I have seen recommendations to store burned disks upright (not horizontally) and in jewel cases. Have you tried a different drive in another computer? You can buy "Archival quality" disks at a premium price, but the only way to see if they really do perform as claimed is to wait a number of years. Are the file formats of the pictures that you cannot view different than the ones on the disc that you can. Do you remember what program you used to create them? truenorthThanks for your responses and trying to help.........

I've tried reading the CD's on three different computers, including the one they were burned with originally.
They all do the same thing - either say the file is unreadable, or else freeze the computer.

About the age and wearing out over time...I can't imagine the three CD's would go bad this quickly - it has only been maybe 2 1/2 years at most?

Its suspicious to me, that it happened on three consecutive CD's I was burning while trying to ARCHIVE my images. They are all .JPG format picture files.

Quote

About the age and wearing out over time...I can't imagine the three CD's would go bad this quickly - it has only been maybe 2 1/2 years at most?

You better start imagining, 'cos it's happened. It is not unknown.

Quote

Its suspicious to me, that it happened on three consecutive CD's

Same: brand, cakebox, manuf. batch, storage location?
What you could probably do for now is to load those CD to a DVD player that can read jpeg file formats. See what comes up.Quote from: Salmon Trout on August 17, 2011, 03:59:21 PM

Same: brand, cakebox, manuf. batch, storage location?

+ same burner?
Thanks to everyone who replied. Its just a weird problem to, and while I can't believe or imagine my bad luck here, I guess I have to! I used three different data restore programs, and one of them ran for almost 36 hours! Still....1/3 of my pics were of the sliding puzzle variety, in other words, unsalvagable.

I tried it in a DVD player, and it wouldn't/couldn't read the files.

Yes, they were all the same brand and stack of CD's - Gigaware brand. All the otherones I have given away with pictures on them, to family and friends! Uh-oh. Sorry everybody!

I just wonder if the total size of all the files could have made any difference? I mean, all three of these were pretty well crammed full - there was little or almost do free SPACE left on the CD. Could that make anything more likely to get scrambled? Say for example, if I had put 500 MB instead of 650 to 700 MB of picture data on there? "I just wonder if the total size of all the files could have made any difference? " For the type of files you noted that would be "no". Certain very large audio files such as putting the equivalent of 10-20 long playing albums on a cd or dvd disc as one track can cause a delay before the disc will play but it will still play if you wait out the delay. A question that has not been asked yet nor do i see you making a reference to it is was there ever a time after the initial "burning" that you were able to view these photos? It won't help you with this problem now but a practice i try to always do is view the disc immediately after burning so if there is a problem i can deal with it before i assume everything is fine and delete the data i intended to store. I think if it could be demonstrated your issue arose right at the time of burning. There are many factors that could have caused that to happen then.truenorthHey, about the checking them right after writing them...I can't remember, there is a chance I didn't. In the past, I usually do try them out after burning. But on these three, I may have been sort of lax in checking. I don't know.

This time, I burned the files I was able to read onto new CD's (Memorex brand), did them slow too. I always burn slower than the max speed, usually about 16x, but this time I went 8x, and made the Ashampoo program verify them as it wrote. It took a good deal longer, but, it did work. I checked them this time, right after burning, and then on another computer as well.
I hope these last longer than 2 1/2 years!

Thanks for the comments and suggestions on this little annoying problem. It got a bunch of my photos I already miss....but on the good side....At least it didn't scramble my UFO and Big Foot and Loch Ness photos! Well being as we are human we CAN/DO make mistakes (re your maybe NOT checking them). Yes i have found that burning at slower speed can often eliminate problems. I have used some of the commercial Ashampoo software for burning and did occasionally have issues. Have stopped using it altogether and now for audio and data/pictures (not video) my preferred is a free software called CDBURNERXP. It is often recommended here on the CH forums. Have yet to have an issue with it. I use another (also free) software for video. Have many bought ones for both but i have had great success from the free ones i use. truenorth

Solve : Photo / CD-R problems?

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