Data mp3 CDs won't open anymore

[WoodPeckr]

I've saved thousands of songs in mp3 format since 2000 on CDs.
Back then the 'experts' claimed this was the best way to archive data, mp3s, etc claiming CDs would last a 100 years!
They all opened and played normal over the years till now.
Today many of these mp3 CDs won't play or open anymore.
They were safely stored as recommended by these 'experts' since 2000.

Is there anyway to recover these CDs?
Have tried Clone CD with no success.
I have transfered all that was possible to a separate HDD partition as backup in the meantime.

This only happens with mp3 CDs burned as data.
All normal audio CDs from 2000 still open and play with no problem.

 

[Anynym]

Not sure which experts you found - clearly they didn't have the best information.

I have found some (data) CDs to work in certain drives but not in others. Do you have access to another machine that you can try?

CDs are encoded with Error Correcting Codes which will recover from certain bit errors, but unfortunately there is never any indication how many bit errors have been corrected, or whether a particular block (sector) was unreadable due to uncorrectable errors. For audio CDs, an unreadable block is more or less ignored, since it takes such a short time to play it and the subsequent blocks don't rely (much) on what's in the lost block.

Data CDs aren't so lucky. The data in the lost block might be critical to how the subsequent blocks are interpreted. Or, sometimes it might not be. But the CD-reading software doesn't give you the opportunity to ignore damaged sectors and live with "some" lost data. You can look around to see if there are tools available which use the paranoia code library to attempt to recover data CDs, or if k3b offers any flexibility with data CDs. Unfortunately, though, these tools are linux-based, and provide more capabilities for audio CDs.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Thanks for the help so far....

Data CDs aren't so lucky. The data in the lost block might be critical to how the subsequent blocks are interpreted. Or, sometimes it might not be. But the CD-reading software doesn't give you the opportunity to ignore damaged sectors and live with "some" lost data. You can look around to see if there are tools available which use the paranoia code library to attempt to recover data CDs, or if k3b offers any flexibility with data CDs. Unfortunately, though, these tools are linux-based, and provide more capabilities for audio CDs.

I noticed this.
There is a difference between my 2 optical drives on how they read the data CDs.
When rerunning the CD the PC struggles and slows down trying to read them.
The good ones transfer over in about 6 minutes. The troublesome ones take double that time or kick out an error saying it's corrupted.
Got a couple to copy over by nursing the balky ones over one mp3 by one mp3.
I tried doing doing this with Ubuntu but had similar problems. Linux failed to read them troublesome CDs either, while others sailed through with no problems.

 

[cypherpunk]

Primary causes of failure are warping of the disc due to gravity or temperature (check the reflection for anything that's not perfect mirror), damage to the reflective aluminum (which you can see through), and scratches/smudges on the surface. You can resurface the discs with a cotton sock and white toothpaste or similar abrasive, moving straight from the center to the edge. If it's none of these, the discs failed because of a design issue, which is somewhat unlikely if you used a good media. For the record, I've never heard anyone say that CDRs, which rely on dyes, would last 100 years. Anything that's really important should be copied every one or two years and stored separately.

In any event, I'd be reluctant to use MP3s from 2000. MP3 encoding has come a LONG way and you can find truly archive quality material all over the place today.

 

[WoodPeckr]

cypherpunk

Some are a perfect mirror, some have a wavy distorted look on the outside edges. The media was standard 650MB CompUSA silver both sides CDs. CompUSA sold tons of them back in 2000 in 100 packs. Those burned as audio files still play perfect, it's just the mp3 files that are failing now.

LOL. Back then many salesman were saying CDs were replacing videotape because they were so durable and would outlast tape. Now my 30+ year old videotapes and audio cassette tapes still play fine but CDs from 2000 won't open or play!

 

[cypherpunk]

Woah, you bought STORE brand? Store brands are known for very poor quality. There are even stories of discs falling apart right off the spindle. As for the CompUSA salesmen, A) dont' listen to salesmen, and B) CompUSA is going out of business within the month, so expect great deals.