I've got a build of a game on an old CDR, but I'm having some trouble getting it to read. I was hoping some of the pros here might be able to help. I can see that there's data burned to the disc, but it seems the reflective layer has degraded to the point that I can see through to the CD label when I hold the disc up to a light. Other than that, there's not much in the way of scratches or other damage to the surface of the disc. However, no drive that I've tried it on has even been able to detect the media and get into a ready state. Again, I think this is due to the degraded reflective layer (although that's just my speculation) Anyone know how I might attempt recovery of this disc? Even if I have to do something dramatic like peel off the top cover and apply a reflective coating or something... Thanks!
Username checks out! KAO was a popular CDR in the 90's. I hope you find an answer, are you inserting into the correct platform? (PC/MAC/Console) But odds are it's what you assume, bit rot.
Not an expert at the subject (I had a different CD issue I had to solve) but before doing anything evasive, it probably wouldn't hurt to run a recovery software to attempt to backup whatever data is left on there. I have heard mention of CD Recovery Toolbox and Roadkil’s Unstoppable Copier as a few programs that might help (have not used them and do not know if it is really more of a gimmick). If those don't do a thing for you, then you might want to look into a physical method that someone with success can vouch for.
Sounds like bitrot. there's no way to really save it if it's gotten to that stage. Try using DVDisaster to backup what you can. If that doesn't help then I don't think there's much more you can do. I have a 360 build like this where the second layers degraded haven't had any luck. Tried multiple drives even blu ray drives but nothing worked.
Thanks for the suggestions, but sorry to hear it may be a lost cause. I tried dvdisaster, but I can't even run a scan because the drive never enters a "ready" state. I may as well have put a pancake into the tray so far as the drive seems to be concerned. My theory is that the laser is passing through the data layer and never bouncing back because of the degraded reflective layer, but again I really don't know much on this topic.
Also try a couple of older drives if you have any - today's are usually built in very "cost-optimized" (read: shit) ways.
The short version: if you can see through the disc, at least a part of the data is destroyed forever. In a CD-R, it's the changed dyes that contain the "burned" information. If that is gone (as implied by being able to see through), information is gone. As you say the disc is not recognizable in drives, there are basically 2 ways to attempt salvage: 1) find a professional disc salvage business and hire them (will be probably incredibly expensive even if someone is willing to try and I can't really suggest anyone-they are mostly working with HDDs) 2) "fool" the drive to read the disc it is unable to recognize. An unrecognizable disc generally means a TOC that is unreadable or meaningless to the computer. When you insert a disc, drive attempts to read the TOC in order to become ready for further reading. So we try to provide it with a reasonably fitting TOC, which it can't find on the damaged disc. I agree with rso's opinion that using a good drive can be an advantage over the current generic crap drives. Some old Plextor models are among the best for reading CDs, assuming you can find one 15 years after they were built. But you can try with almost any drive at first and if you manage to obtain something useful, try to get more by investing on a good drive and doing the same steps. The basic theory of steps to follow: 1) Burn a trap disc. If type of data and disc structure is known, mimic that. Eg, if you happen to know that the CD-R contained a mode 1 data track only (like usual unprotected PC discs or stuff like 3DO), make a mode 1 data track filling the entire capacity of the disc. If type of data or disc structure is unknown, probably the best way would be a disc with audio filling the entire capacity of the disc. You can go with less if it's obvious from the burned area of your CD-R that less than the entire capacity is burned to it. 2) You now need to "fool" your drive into reading the TOC from the trap disc you created (this will make the drive willing to read further) and then replace the trap disc with the damaged disc WITHOUT the drive detecting the trap disc has been ejected, as this will reset the TOC it read before from the trap disc. The way to do that is different from drive to drive. For usual PC drives it generally involves removing the drive's cover and fiddling with the interiors. 3) Once the fake TOC has been read and the trap disc is replaced with the damaged disc inside the drive, you need to use disc ripping software to rip the data stream out of it. Alcohol or CloneCD are good at this, but others may also do the job if they allow setting the necessary options. You will need to set it to read at minimum speed, skipping read errors, read full 2352 sectors with subchannels etc. (settings to adjust will vary depending on software) and the process can take hours if there are too many permanently damaged sectors on the disc. Drive will attempt to read each sector in turn. It will grab data from where it can read and choke in sectors it can't read. But in the end of the process, you will have at hand a single binary file. 4) The binary file you ripped will contain whatever data is readable from the disc in a continuous stream. After you have that, you need to convert this binary stream to something usable, which can also be an extremely tedious and slow job. As there is no standard way to do it, there can be no guidance on that. It depends purely on the initial contents of the disc and the extend of damage to them. The method described is similar to methods used to read Dreamcast discs on PC drives. IMHO it is the only way to go when the drive doesn't even become ready when you insert the damaged disc. Knowledge of CD-ROM specs and structure is also useful. I gave you the rough basics, you can google for more info. Generally the method is quite difficult and I would only bother if contents of your damaged disc are really precious. It is even possible that nothing useful is readable on the disc even with this method, depends on how severely degraded it is. I wish you good luck on your salvage attempt.
Thanks so much for the detailed replies, everyone! Sounds like a lot of work, but I may give it a try thanks to your instructions.
