CD-R Woes

spud17

In the past I have used Nero 6 (supplied with CD rewriter), saw CD burnerXP pro3 being recommended, liked it.

Any free programs programs I spot on MSE that I think could be useful I download and transfer to CD.

Tonight I used Xp Pro 3 for the first time to add a program to a CD which already had Nero recordings on it.

I now have nothing accessible on the CD.

I think I can now remember a post by Donnie referring to Nero files on CD.

Are all burning programs incompatible or is it just Nero?

I suspect all is lost.

Confirmation on way or the other would be nice.

Thanks R.

GoofyGAT

Some things to try:

* Remove disk from drive & reboot PC. Then place disk in drive & try accessing it again.
* If the data you've lost is important to you, try free CD/DVD recovery software like IsoBuster (beta version), but may be worth answering the questions below before attempting....

When you used CD burnerXP were there any burn errors?

Are there any error messages when you try to access the 'damaged' disk?

When you initially burnt the disk, did you choose to do so as 'multisession'?

Or, did you use 'packet writing' to write/add files to the disk? In other words, did you format it first using Nero InCD to give it the drag & drop capability - much the same as you'd do when using a floppy.

The problem could've been a one off - have you tried it with another disk? Disks do get corrupted from time to time no matter what burning program you use.

Are you using CDr or CD-RW disks? Not sure why I'm asking this but would be interesting to know. G

Old_Skool

Hi,

Have you still got Nero installed on the PC?

May not be causing your problems but I was always lead to believe that you should only ever have one burning software installed at a time to avoid conflicts.

spud17

GoofyGat

Great reply,

Tried 4 drives on 2 PCs this morning, no luck.

No burn errors when using CD BurnerXP pro.

Error message : The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable
.
Used as Multi-session, have added several (10 or 12) programs/drivers over several months.

Using CD-R.

It was fine until I used CD Burner XP pro.

Resorted to trying IsoBuster, I think I have recovered all the data prior to last nights failure.

While not of national importance it did comprise some old drivers etc needed for my 2nd PC.

So success.

Can you mix different burner programs on the same disk, although I suspect it is not worth the risk.

I do still have Nero 6 installed, should I uninstall?

Donnie

Yes, if you no longer need it. You can always reinstall it later, if necessary.

GoofyGAT

I suppose after what happened, it's best to stick to one burning program.

Though I've used multisession with success in the past, it may not be ideal according to this article - which may account for the failure you had? Also, as it mentions, you lose a lot of disk space with each session & this loss accumulates with each burn 'session'. If you must stick to multisession, burning at a considerably slower rate may help retain data better &/or lower the risk of corrupted disks.

Packet writing (PW) is more efficient (up to a point) & easier to use, but data retention is relatively poor in my experience. And I think you'll need the paid-for version of IsoBuster to recover lost data off a disk made by this method.

Your best course of action in the future may be one of these:

1. If you have enough hard disk space, leave the data on your PC.
2. If you're running out of disk space & it's a free program unlikely to expire - just bookmark the website.
3. If the above two are not options, accumulate enough data each time to fill a CDr's capacity & so making it worth your while to burn to disk a single time the standard way (non-multisession). You'll need a fresh CDr every time you do this of course.
4. Get CD-rw or DVD+/-rw disks, which you can use to burn/reburn a number of times, again choosing the standard burn method over multisession.

G

spud17

GoofyGAT

Hi again,

I've not got a huge HD (20GB) by todays standards, also it's about 60% full.
Processor is 1.3 ghz so try to limit stuff on HD 'cos it takes ages to virus/antispy scan.

Never had a problem adding while using Nero 6, only this time when adding using CDBurner XP, so coincidence or what?

Tended to use CD-R, cheap, no chance of accidentally wiping them and 2nd PC only has CD.

Anyway can recommend IsoBuster, it recovered the Nero data, which was the more important.