New Optical Drives not Reading my self-burned CDR's?

[LotusAstra]

Hi all, I guess this falls into both software & hardware forums really, so this is the one i choose since it was a hardware upgrade which lead me to find this prob.

Having recently built a new system as in my sig. (inc. new DVD & CD-RW drives) i have found that some (very small percetage) of my old CD's that were Burned on either my Mitsumi CR4804TE or the LG CED-8083b do not work properly on either of my new drives (DVD&CDRW). (most likely the Mitsumi with the prob i think, but it could be software related)

I 1st discovered that i couldn't read the CD's when i got the DVD drive so i bought the burner hoping it would read them OK (and hoping it was just a weak/incompatable DVD drive or sumut) but this was not the case...

With WinME both Drives will sometimes (not always) find the Data after several eject/reloads and waiting around 30 to 60 secs for something to happen...

...In XP the DVD drive behaves same as with WinME, but the Writer just sees these CD's as an audio CD with 1 track and opens W-M-Player but obviously dosn't play anything.

The CD's this happens too are from no particular date, its just random depending on whats on them, all my expensive branded CD's are perfect from testing so far, it seems this has only effected the Cheap CDR's that i usually buy, but they are not all of the same make/batch since its over a longish time-span of the last couple years.

It also seems that CD's which i have created by compiling the data myself are all fine too... this issue only so far seems to have effected CDR's that have been ripped and burned from BackUp Images so its not a major prob as i still have the originals of-course and haven't actually lost anything.... its just a little inconvienient to have to burn some of my BackUps again just so they work in my new system u see.

Has anyone had simular expierences after upgrading their Optical Drives?

I haven't narrowed this down to any particular program or drive completly as i can't remember what i used at the time...

I know there are programs that tell u the brand/type of CDR used (ie. CD-MATE)... but i'm wondering if any other info is burned on the CDR that could tell me what burner i burned it with and maybe the software too?

So does anyone know of a program to grab the info i need from CDR's (if its indeed posible that is) it would be a great help in diagnosing this issue?

Like i said no data has been lost (and i still have the old burners, both of which read these disc's 100% all of the time) but i need to know why so i can avoid this in future, it can't just be cheap CDR's if others of the same batch work.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated

[Gerdog]

I don't know if this will help, but I saw this program demonstrated on the TechTV station the other day. It can slow down the speed of the cdrom and hopefully allow damaged cds to be read. Haven't tried it myself:
http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/in...366746,00.html

[Philgo]

Hi Lotus.

Are your disks readable if you boot from a bootdisk?

You also said that they still work with your old burner, is that on the same machine?

This is a bit weird..........

[LotusAstra]

Thx all

Gerdog, i didn't actually try that program cuz i realised nero has a tool that does the same thing, i gave it a try but it doesn't help at all unfortunatly...

Philgo my old burner's are each in my old PC's, i shall try one of em in this new PC just to rule out any other hardware, also i haven't tried reading them from DOS as u said, will give that ago too...

As i say i can still read these CD's in the original drives i'm in no need to recover Data from them, i'm mainly trying to figure out why this has happened so i can avoid it in future,

if as i request there is a software to give me the info i need from the CD that would help a lot i think.

Trying to find out if these CD's were burned MODE1 or 2 etc, makes of CD, dies used, burner burned on and the program used to do it... is there any way to get this info from the CD's i burn?

Will do some more testing and get back!

Thx again

[LotusAstra]

I've done some more testing (swapping of Drives) and the prob does lie with the Drives and not the PC it being used on...

But oddly when the ROM Drives are in their intended PC's some of the CD's that windows does NOT read can be read OK on the same PC when booted in DOS. But not all of em, darn weird, i get tho oddest of probs .

Any news on some software to help me out ID'ing these CD's?

[JoJo Gunn]

CD Speed and Info Tool, both free, on this page:

http://www.cdspeed2000.com/

No self respecting computer packrat should be without 'em....

[LotusAstra]

JoJo Gunn, Brilliant, That Nero Info Tool is just what i need, i shall have a play around with it now, so glad this kinda info can be grabed from the CD's!

Hopefully now i'll be able to find some common reason for this...

Many Thx

[JoJo Gunn]

Glad to help out.