Fixing a bad CD disc.

  • Thread starter Thread starter caseri9
  • Start date Start date
C

caseri9

Hi, The CD for my precious Norton GO-BACK program was hanging out on
a fishing line over my potato patch for over a week, doing its duty to
scare birds and other critters away. Since no one in my household did
it, of course, I'm convinced it did it itself to commit suicide!

I rushed it into the house and ran cold water on it, then gently with
a soft piece of cotton cloth, while the water was still running, I
wiped it very gently from center, out. It was filled with dry mud
before I ran water over it, and when I cleaned it looked as good as
new with no scratches. But it would not load on my Dell 2400 DIM.
HELP???? Please?

I know it'll be a long time before I can a replacement (from Norton),
unless I run out and buy a new issue!

Thanks very much for suggestions, help, or even a little sympathy!

Mike
 
Who's guarding the potatoes now ?

If you explore the disk do you see any data on it ?
 
Hang it back outside.. it will do better out there than installed on your
system..
 
Actually, for the person who does not want to learn about computers or is
incapable of learning, GoBack 4.0 works wonders. It is much more reliable
that version 2 and 3 were and it is 100 times more powerful than System
Restore is.

I have put it quite a few computers, owned by people who fit into the
classes I have mentioned. I am actually cutting my own veins as these people
used to call me regularly for help. I seldom, if ever, hear from them now.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
I am somewhat puzzled with respect to your and Mike Hall disparagaging
reference re Go Back. Previously I have seen only 'good' things said about
this program and have installed it as I have had nothing but bad experience
with System Restore. Will you kindly explain what is so 'terrible' about Go
Back. I must say that while I have it installed, for peace of mind, I have
not yet had cause to use it. It seems non intrusive, unlike many other
Norton programs, and with todays large capacity HDD space is not a
consideration, at least for me.
 
Three things are "so terrible" about GoBack:

1. It occupies a huge amount of hard disk.
2. It creates a large drain on your system resources, slowing your computer's performance.
3. It interferes with many software applications.

The security conscious among us would add:
4. It backs up files you thought you deleted.

GoBack and it's competitors (most of which are no longer produced) were discredited in the PC press long ago. This software is for people who are so lazy (or clueless) about backing up that they would rather sacrifice their computer's well-being than learn how to backup properly.

Ted Zieglar
 
Answers in-line!

Three things are "so terrible" about GoBack:

1. It occupies a huge amount of hard disk.

***********************
Only as much as you want to give it. And, it actually allows you to choose
the amount of space in gig, rather than a percentage. You can also choose
what partition you want the goback file to reside upon for the entire
drive - as opposed to System Restore which places a file on each partition.
***********************

2. It creates a large drain on your system resources, slowing your
computer's performance.

***********************
Many people don't even notice the extra overhead. I would bet that 60-75% of
the computers I service are used only for typing letters and surfing the
web. The owners would not even know that it is there. Plus, with todays
performance computers the drain is almost neglible.
***********************

3. It interferes with many software applications.

***********************
On the computers I have installed it upon, 5 or 6, that has not been my
experience. Please give some examples so that I can test this out!
***********************


The security conscious among us would add:

4. It backs up files you thought you deleted.

***********************
Hogwash!

I set each computer up with 2 physical drives for my "less than
knowledgeable" customers. I give then a primary master drive of 40 gig, in
two partitions. The system partition C: is 20 gig. The GoBack file partition
D:, is the remainder. I also give them a primary slave drive of whatever
size they choose. The "My Documents" folder for every account is moved to
this second drive, alonf with their "Favorites", "Address Book", "Mail
Store" and anything else they can't afford to lose.

When setting up GoBack, I use the custom install (ever try that?) and allow
GoBack to only monitor the primary master drive. Whatever is saved or stored
on the primary slave is not touched by the GoBack restore process. Nor is it
protected! You can delete/wipe as you would normally do.

**********************

GoBack and it's competitors (most of which are no longer produced) were
discredited in the PC press long ago. This software is for people who are so
lazy (or clueless) about backing up that they would rather sacrifice their
computer's well-being than learn how to backup properly.

**********************
Opinion only, and not based upon a good setup!
**********************

Now, would I use it on my personal computers? Never! But for those people
who don't want to learn, can't learn or are incapable of learning - it does
wonders ***IF SET UP PROPERLY***.

I have used GoBack on a computer in an adult group home. It is set to revert
at boot to the way the system was when I delivered it to them. Short of
hitting the computer with a hammer, they can't harm it. I have not been back
there in 7 months and, at last check about a month ago, they are still using
the computer every day.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!


Ted Zieglar
 
Richard

I like your thinking re. two drives per machine.. unfortunately, in rural
Canada, if something is more than $12 including tax, they tend not to want
to enter the ballpark..

Do you not find that some of your customers have a habit of changing
settings after you have performed a carefully thought out setup?.. some of
mine do as they invariably have 'knowledgeable friends who, during visits,
'tweak' the machines with consent..
 
I have used GoBack on a computer in an adult group home. It is set to revert
at boot to the way the system was when I delivered it to them. Short of
hitting the computer with a hammer, they can't harm it. I have not been back
there in 7 months and, at last check about a month ago, they are still using
the computer every day.
Click to expand...

While not personally fond of Norton/Symantec products, my vote always goes
to "whatever works." If it works in specific scenarios for some of your
customers that's great and all that really matters.
 
It's not about feeling better. It's about adding a new perspective from
someone who has successfully set it up for people to use.

One important thing I neglected to mention. If you get a massive virus on
Tuesday, spyware on Wednesday and a rootkit install on Thursday, all you
have to do is to go back to Monday and it is as if none of it was on your
computer. All new and changed/altered files - folders - registry settings
and additions/deletions, on the protected drive - will be gone. A hell of a
lot better that System Restore.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
A lot of comments about GOBACK, but no help in resurrecting a bad CD.
Oh Well. Maybe I shall just oss it as one MVP said.
Thanks you all for any comment or help. ! I DO appreciate anything
coming my way.

Well, except negatively tilted comments towards me as being stupid.
 
Mike Hall (MS-MVP) said:
Richard

I like your thinking re. two drives per machine.. unfortunately, in rural
Canada, if something is more than $12 including tax, they tend not to want
to enter the ballpark..

Do you not find that some of your customers have a habit of changing
settings after you have performed a carefully thought out setup?.. some of
mine do as they invariably have 'knowledgeable friends who, during visits,
'tweak' the machines with consent..
Click to expand...

Yes, customers can change settings. In the case of the group home, I locked
the GoBack settings with an administrator password.

I also locked GoBack settings on my 57 year old "idiot" brothers computer,
but allow him to make changes I don't think he can do harm with. His goal in
life is to see how many songs he can download for free. You can imagine the
problems HE runs into. When he reboots, all is well again with the press of
the space bar. Even he can remember that his computer was running fine last
Sunday, before he tried to play his latest download. So, he goes back to a
time a couple of hours before and "everything" that happened to his Windows
partition is gone.
 
Touche'
Lots of entertaining banter, but no help, ehh? I seem to remember a program
to probe iso 9660 cd's, but can't remember the name of it. Lemme dig around,
maybe that google DTS or Microsoft's DTS can help me find it (assuming the
drive it is on got indexed !!). Maybe someone else out there remembers the
name of it. Basically does a raw read of the cd kind of like a disk editor.
 
I can do that with Norton Ghost.

I was not attacking you. My post wasn't even addressed to you. The poster
wanted to know why so many people think that GoBack is "so terrible" and I
answered. And the truth is, GoBack is a poor excuse for not backing up or
learning to use a computer properly. And that point has been widely made in
the computer press.

Nonetheless, for some people - including a few whom you know - it's the
lesser evil. That doesn't make it a recommendation for the majority of
users, who know better.

P.S. You can't compare GoBack to System Restore: The two are designed for
very different uses.
 
A lot of comments about GOBACK, but no help in resurrecting a bad CD.
Oh Well. Maybe I shall just oss it as one MVP said.
Thanks you all for any comment or help. ! I DO appreciate anything
coming my way.

Well, except negatively tilted comments towards me as being stupid.
Click to expand...

Should be able to find something from this page that might help:
http://www.webtree.ca/newlife/cd_burning_info.htm

Have never tried it but it looks like maybe CD-R diagnostics from that page
could help: http://www.infinadyne.com/
 
Go to shop and get a CD cleaner. They scratch the surface so it becomes little scratches, and wearing away large scratches, allowing the disk to be read.
 
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