Shoutbox

Here's the problem,
I have a couple of CDs that contain lots of backup datas, and apparently when I insert the CD, Windows detect that the CD is empty which is not true. I am very sure that those CDs contain datas and they are important but Windows can't detect it and it detects as empty CDs.
Those CDs are burnt two years ago on Windows XP SP1. And my current Windows is Vista.
And I am sure that those CDs' image aren't damaged whatsoever.
Here's the solutions I tried.
I tried cleaning the CDs with some cleaning chemicals for CDs, I tried insert them to another drive, but to no avail. I bought one of the drives this year and another drive which comes with my PC, both of them are DVD burners however, one is DVD Ram and another one is just DVD RW respectively.
I didn't try on my sister's PC though, as I'm afraid that it will damage my CD as her PC is 4 years older then my PC, running on Windows Xp sp2.
My laptop is sent for repair and there's no other choice for me to try.
I tried Googling but the results given aren't what I've anticipated it to be though.

Here's my questions, is there any programs that are free, and work like a charm, and is there other solutions?
I need those datas urgently.
Please don't start lecturing me for not backing up on several CDs/DVDs, or external harddisk or any external storage. That time I didn't have any external storage available for me, and I have limited CDs/DVDs.
I am very upset about this.
Thanks for hearing me out. And your answers are much appreciated.

How can you be certain that the discs aren't damaged?
The layers are quite small and you can't be sure if they were damaged.

Anyway, sometimes it happens that the discs were written at a higher speed than can be read by your device. I hope thats not the case.
The change in OS has nothing to do with this problem.
I recommend you try using the disc on your sisters old pc

Burning speed is unrelated to reading speed (unless the burn was too fast to work properly on cheap media, then reading will be very slow or not happening on any device, because the disk is just bad).

Try IsoBuster. It's worked for me a few times. It's not free, but a trial is available. I don't know if the trial is limited.

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Originally posted by John Anderton
How can you be certain that the discs aren't damaged?
The layers are quite small and you can't be sure if they were damaged.

Anyway, sometimes it happens that the discs were written at a higher speed than can be read by your device. I hope thats not the case.
The change in OS has nothing to do with this problem.
I recommend you try using the disc on your sisters old pc

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Thanks for your advice.
I'm very certain that they aren't damaged as I haven touch those CDs for more then one and half years; they simply placed in their own CD case, and werer left untouch ever since.
Anyway, I've tried on my sis's PC, but due to slowness, the PC lags and hangs eventually.. -_-"

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Originally posted by rav0
Burning speed is unrelated to reading speed (unless the burn was too fast to work properly on cheap media, then reading will be very slow or not happening on any device, because the disk is just bad).

Try IsoBuster. It's worked for me a few times. It's not free, but a trial is available. I don't know if the trial is limited.

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Thanks rav0, I will try that program. (:

Do you remember what CD burning software was installed on the PC these discs were created?

Where that question is leading is that the discs created with some third party UDF packet writer might be unreadable by Vista for whatever silly reason.  If that is the problem, the solution would be to install the same software on a computer (it will probably have to be your sister's computer with XP, given most CD writing software itself isn't compatible with Vista) and see if that helps.

sometimes they are burned compressed with some propietary format so

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Originally posted by Adeptus
Do you remember what CD burning software was installed on the PC these discs were created?

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and use it to see the disks

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Originally posted by Voldemort
Do you remember what CD burning software was installed on the PC these discs were created?

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Yeah, I do remember but there's one problem though...
The program came pre-installed on my PC, and there isn't a copy of the program on CD, its installer was on my hard disk but it was cleared away when I install vista.. How unfortunate.

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Originally posted by Voldemort
sometimes they are burned compressed with some propietary format so

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hmm.. what do you mean?
I'm abit noob with these burning compression thingy.

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Originally posted by Voldemort
and use it to see the disks

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I usually will do that. thanks for the advice though. (:

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Originally posted by xJ+
The program came pre-installed on my PC, and there isn't a copy of the program on CD, its installer was on my hard disk but it was cleared away when I install vista..

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What was its name?

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Originally posted by Adeptus

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Originally posted by xJ+
The program came pre-installed on my PC, and there isn't a copy of the program on CD, its installer was on my hard disk but it was cleared away when I install vista..

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What was its name?

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The name's Sonic RecordNow!
I'm not sure about the version number though, but I do know that it's an old version...

Try this:  http://www.roxio.com/enu/support/udf/software_updates.html .  Once again, I wouldn't try to install it under Vista; use the computer with XP you mentioned.