OT - displaying contents of CD

[Gordon]

We have just been sent a CD containing photos of a wedding. My wife has a
laptop with a CDRW drive in it. When the CD is placed in the drive, it shows
as empty with nothing on it. When I place the CD in my external CDRW drive
attached to my PC I can see the contents. Both running XP SP2.......can
anyone suggest a reason for this?

thanks

 

[Gordon]

We have just been sent a CD containing photos of a wedding. My wife has a
laptop with a CDRW drive in it. When the CD is placed in the drive, it
shows as empty with nothing on it. When I place the CD in my external CDRW
drive attached to my PC I can see the contents. Both running XP
SP2.......can anyone suggest a reason for this?

thanks

PS - I can also see the contents of the CD on my laptop which does NOT have
a CDRW drive.......

 

[SingaporeWebDesign]

Hello,

How old is your wife's laptop? If it is very old, it could be the age of the
CD-ROM - the laser could be failing. CD-RWs require greater laser strength
to read the data.

Does this problem occur with other CD media?

--
Singapore Website Design
http://www.bootstrike.com/Webdesign/
Singapore Web Hosting
http://www.bootstrike.com/WinXP/faq.html
Windows XP FAQ

 

[Gordon]

Hello,

How old is your wife's laptop? If it is very old, it could be the age of
the CD-ROM - the laser could be failing. CD-RWs require greater laser
strength to read the data.

Does this problem occur with other CD media?

It's about a year old, and no, AFAIK other CD media are fine.

 

[Alan]

Hello Gordon,

When the CD was burned, whoever created the CD might not have 'finalized'
it.

If a CD is not 'finalized,' it might -- or might not -- be able to be read
by other computers. The two computers that you ARE able to see the contents
are the "lucky" ones.

Alan

 

[Gordon]

Hello Gordon,

When the CD was burned, whoever created the CD might not have 'finalized'
it.

If a CD is not 'finalized,' it might -- or might not -- be able to be read
by other computers. The two computers that you ARE able to see the
contents are the "lucky" ones.

Is there any way of finding out if the disk has been finalised or not?

 

[Alan]

The only thing that I use my CD burner for is to make backup copies of my
application installation disks, so that when I need to reinstall something I
use the copy. With my Roxio software, it automatically finalizes a CD when a
disk is copied.

Otherwise, I really don't know how to tell if a CD has been finalized or
not.

Alan

 

[HEMI-Powered]

Today, Gordon made these interesting comments ...

Is there any way of finding out if the disk has been finalised
or not?

I don't know of a technical way to do this, but if you can, one
possible pragmatic approach is to try to read it on a "normal" CD
reader, i.e., not the one you burned it on and not one that can
support multiple sessions.

 

[Gordon]

Today, Gordon made these interesting comments ...

I don't know of a technical way to do this, but if you can, one
possible pragmatic approach is to try to read it on a "normal" CD
reader, i.e., not the one you burned it on and not one that can
support multiple sessions.

That's just the point - I /can/ read it on an ordinary (not RW) CDRom drive,
both in my desktop AND my laptop - just not on my wife'a laptop! (Which is a
DVDRW drive....)

 

[HEMI-Powered]

Today, Gordon made these interesting comments ...

That's just the point - I /can/ read it on an ordinary (not
RW) CDRom drive, both in my desktop AND my laptop - just not
on my wife'a laptop! (Which is a DVDRW drive....)

Well, in that case, can you just waste a disc and re-burn it on
your PC and make damn well sure it is finalized? Also, is there
anything special about your wife's laptop, e.g., is your CD a
multi-session or an RW vs R? Or, did you burn with UDF and your
wife doesn't have a driver for that? Are there any other obvious
differences that let you read this disc everyplace except one?

 

[Gordon]

Today, Gordon made these interesting comments ...


Well, in that case, can you just waste a disc and re-burn it on
your PC and make damn well sure it is finalized?

certainly I can do this - but the original disk was burned by someone else
on another system and sent by post to us, so I am concerned that if THEY
haven't finalised it, others that do not have access to multiple machines
may not be able to read it.

Also, is there anything special about your wife's laptop, e.g., is your
CD a
multi-session or an RW vs R? Or, did you burn with UDF and your
wife doesn't have a driver for that? Are there any other obvious
differences that let you read this disc everyplace except one?

Not as far as I know.....

 

[Alan]

Hi Gordon,

Indeed, your concern about the finalization (okay, finalisation for you

) is a valid one.

The people who did the burning originally might have to create another set
of CD's that they send out, which have been properly burned so they can be
read on ALL PCs that have an optical drive.

Alan

 

[George]

It's about a year old, and no, AFAIK other CD media are fine.

AFAIK you should check it If another disk is readable then you know it
is the CD that was sent to you....

George

 

[HEMI-Powered]

Today, Alan made these interesting comments ...

Hi Gordon,

Indeed, your concern about the finalization (okay,
finalisation for you

The people who did the burning originally might have to create
another set of CD's that they send out, which have been
properly burned so they can be read on ALL PCs that have an
optical drive.

Alan

Alan, the trouble with threads like this is that often nobody but
the OP know the entire story so we are just shooting arrows into
the air and wondering where they fall. If the OP knows who burned
the CD, I would ask for a new copy verified for both finizations -
usually a given - and for the file type used to burn it, e.g., ISO,
Joliet, UDF, something else. Also, the particular brand of disc
media is often important as are file lengths, multiple sub-folders,
and many other factors that can make a perfectly good CD readable
on N PCs but not on just one more, your wife's!

 

[Gordon]

Hi Gordon,

Indeed, your concern about the finalization (okay, finalisation for you

The people who did the burning originally might have to create another set
of CD's that they send out, which have been properly burned so they can be
read on ALL PCs that have an optical drive.

I've just tried it on a third laptop with just a normal CDROM drive and THAT
can read the CD as well. So there's nothing wrong with the CD AFAIK, it MUST
be something to do with the DVDRW drive on my wife's laptop. Which reads
other CD media perfectly OK......

 

[dobey]

I've just tried it on a third laptop with just a normal CDROM drive and
THAT can read the CD as well. So there's nothing wrong with the CD AFAIK,
it MUST be something to do with the DVDRW drive on my wife's laptop. Which
reads other CD media perfectly OK......

Well it's not uncommon for some drives not to like certain brands of media.
I have an older DVD drive which is selective about which disks it reads, but
I only keep it for compatability, to test disks I have made in a DVD writer,
they work fine.

I had the odd situation years ago of buying a cheap CDRW drive, and it
couldn't read part of the pressed setup disk that came with it. Gave me a
"not a valid application" message, but the disc was fine in another drive.
Occasionally I would get a CD from a magazine that wouldn't read properly,
often the disc could be heard thrashing and it would take a long time to
load.

This was on various brands of CD reader and writers over the years.

 

[HEMI-Powered]

Today, dobey made these interesting comments ...

Well it's not uncommon for some drives not to like certain
brands of media. I have an older DVD drive which is selective
about which disks it reads, but I only keep it for
compatability, to test disks I have made in a DVD writer, they
work fine.

It never ceases to amaze me why people skimp a few cents per disc
on no-brand media when it is important backups or other valuable
data they intend to record to optical. Ditto for buying ultra-
cheap drives.

I highly agree with you about media type, the biggest reason for
some failures is that a particular version of CD/DVD reader drive
may not like certain colors of dye on the plastic backing or may
not like the speed rating and just refuse to read. Over the
years, I have discovered that my PC likes Verbatim and Memorex
the best, my first car with a CD player liked TDK, and other
devices either did or didn't work depending on media. Right now,
I have a very new DVR for my TV that simply will not write to any
kind of Memorex DVD, and won't write reliably to dual-layer or
single layer +R type discs. I found that it likes Verbatim DVD-R,
not DVD+R, and I found a way around needing dual layer.

I had the odd situation years ago of buying a cheap CDRW
drive, and it couldn't read part of the pressed setup disk
that came with it. Gave me a "not a valid application"
message, but the disc was fine in another drive. Occasionally
I would get a CD from a magazine that wouldn't read properly,
often the disc could be heard thrashing and it would take a
long time to load.

This was on various brands of CD reader and writers over the
years.

I think we've pretty much beat this thread to death. The OP needs
to try to narrow down exactly what it is that his wife's laptop
doesn't like whether it is media type, file type of the data
being burned, something about the data itself, file names, folder
trees if any, something, that is different than all the others.
It may be as easy to fix as reburning, as has been suggested by
others, to different media brand(s) until it works or it may be
as difficult and expensive as buying a new drive. Or, maybe just
sucking it up and living without whatever is on this one CD.

 

[Gordon]

Or, maybe just sucking it up and living without whatever is on this one
CD.

I think you've hit it! Its very strange though......