How to recover data from a defective CDROM

[Gene Heskett]

On Thursday 21 May 2009, Jonathan Ryshpan wrote:
>On Wed, 2009-05-20 at 22:28 -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
>> On Wednesday 20 May 2009, Jonathan Ryshpan wrote:
>> >My computer is no longer able to read a CDROM with some fairly valuable
>> >data.  I have been able to read this CDROM successfully in the past.
>> >...
>> >An attempt to get some data using cat fails:
>> ># cat /dev/sr0
>> >cat: /dev/sr0: Input/output error
>>
>> Can this drive still read other cd's?  Also, if the cd really is
>> scratched, there are treatments to restore them at your local Wally World
>> I believe.  In a one time pinch, you could use a century old darkroom
>> technique we used for scratched negatives since long before my time, rub a
>> bit of the grease from the side of your nose into the scratch.
>>
>> But I'd almost bet a new drive would read it as it is.
>
>The drive does read other CDs without trouble.  It's almost new; I
>bought the system in March.  Two other systems, both old but reliable
>won't read the CD either.  The CD has no visible scratches; a little
>grease didn't help.
>
>Thanks - jon

How old is the CD, and is it pressed or burnt?  There are stories going around 
that even pressed ones have a short lifetime.  I lost one of my later Johnny 
Cash disks a year ago.  Looking at it, it looks like it was never recorded, 
its all gone.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
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