[Craig_]

Long story short - My sister has a dozen CD-Rs full of photo images, written using WinXP. That computer is now gone (ie. we don't know what utility was used). Now she's trying unsuccessfully to access any of the disks in a DVD drive (different computers) with Win7 home & pro and gets messages of:

a) (white x in red circle) D:\ is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted or unreadable. Or,
b) Window says DVD RW Drive (D / Disk title (ie. "Summer Trip 2007B") / Open folder to view files using Windows Explorer. But attempts to open directory ... go back to a) Not accessible.

Plays audio CDs, DVDs, and DVD data disks fine.
I was thinking it was a UDF issue but found that Win7 should read any UDF written by XP? I don't have a list yet of what software she has/doesn't have (but again, would that matter in Win7?)

Anyway, I'm confused. Of course she's 500 miles away, but I could access her PC if details are needed... Any thoughts? Many thanx!!

 

[shawnpb]

Re: Can not read CD data disks written by WinXP

What is the format of the photos? The files could be corrupted. You could try 3rd party software to try to open the files like Irfanview or xnview.

 

[Lead3]

Re: Can not read CD data disks written by WinXP

If the files were written to the disk and it was left so that additional files could be added, it may not be readable to other systems.

I have used Isobuster to copy files from these disks.

Download IsoBuster: CD Data Recovery software also featuring DVD, BD and HD DVD file data rescue

 

[Craig_]

Re: Can not read CD data disks written by WinXP

Makes sense, Lead3 - Thanks
Now with IsoBuster, any experience with free vs paid version ...

...or any better to go through installing Nero/InCD reader, etc, trying to find the original utility that was used on the XP machine?? Or would that even work?

 

[spunk.funk]

Re: Can not read CD data disks written by WinXP

try Test Disk to see if it can recover the data.

 

[Craig_]

Re: Can not read CD data disks written by WinXP

try Test Disk to see if it can recover the data.

Thanks for the advice! I'll give it a whirl.

 

[jenae]

Re: Can not read CD data disks written by WinXP

Hi, this might just be a NTFS permissions problem put one of the cd's into the drive and do not attempt to open it. Go to start, search and type,cmd right click on the returned cmd.exe and select "run as administrator" assume the cd drive is "d" otherwise change, at the prompt copy paste:-

d: & cd\ & echo > c:\0 & tree d:\ /a /f >>c:\0 & echo  >>c:\0 & notepad c:\0

(press enter)

A notepad with the tree contents of the cd should open, let us know what happens.

 

[Craig_]

Re: Can not read CD data disks written by WinXP

Update - I was able to try a few things:

One disk that win7 acknowledges, but Explorer can't access, did give a seemingly good directory tree when using jenae's tree command. I haven't tried to pull those photo files off yet - realized that IsoBuster(free) doesn't allow it.

BUT - another disk which is unrecognizable - after using the tree command I get: "The volume does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted. The current directory is invalid."

TestDisk also gave "0 files recovered."

And IsoBuster's info:
　　　　　　LBA 　　　　Size 　　Bytes
Track 01 0 　　　　　　8.00 TB 8,796,092,715,008
Track 00 4294967146 0.00 KB 　0
Track 00 4294967146 0.00 KB 　0
Track 00 4294967146 13.46 MB 14,119,056
Track 00 5853 　　　218.43 MB 229,036,032
　UDF Lost and Found
　　No files or folders could be found via this method
　Files Found via their signature
　　No files or folders could be found via this method

(I was intrigued by the 8 TB track size - that's some CD-R!)
I also tried to save a disk image with IsoBuster, but no go.

Still a mystery as to why - Photos were just copied to disks in winXP, then put in storage - all of them are affected. The disks were manually verified on that computer after burning.

Any more thoughts on the inaccessible disks?

 

[Craig_]

Re: Can not read CD data disks written by WinXP

So (jenae) if it is a NTFS permissions problem for some of these disks, is there a simple solution? Or just pull the files off via TestDisk / PhotoRec?

I still haven't been able to access a variety of other data disks in any way - I'm not optomistic.

 

[Lead3]

Re: Can not read CD data disks written by WinXP

I have used the free version with success.

 

[jenae]

Re: Can not read CD data disks written by WinXP

Hi, sorry I have been recovering, joined a gym to get fit and tore a ligament in my foot, very painful and now for some months I will not be very active (no fool like an old fool, I am afraid)

When the morphine allows a few lucid moments I will respond.

To reset permissions on the cd's. Put one into the drive, next go to start, search and type cmd, right click on the returned cmd.exe and select "run as administrator" at the prompt:-

Go to the drive or folder in question, for example type:- (assume your cd drive is "D".

CD /D D:

(press enter)
To reset all the files permissions, type:

icacls * /T /Q /C /RESET

press enter

This should remove any "access denied"

 

[Craig_]

Re: Can not read CD data disks written by WinXP

UPDATE -

My sister shipped one of the troublesome disks to me as I couldn't progress via remote access - her win 7 machine just couldn't even access the disk no matter what I tried (even tried CD Roller to no avail at her end). Well, with my 'older' XP and CD Roller, success was easily had. Disk was in UDF 1.5, 'open' status, that apparently her fancy new age Windows 7 machine just didn't like. She subsequently tracked down someone else locally with an older machine and voilà, case closed - and about 4000 family photos saved.

Very kooky - I have never run across this problem before. Never assume backward compatibility!

 

[spunk.funk]

Re: Can not read CD data disks written by WinXP

Disk was in UDF 1.5, 'open' status

The disc was not finalized when recorded. If that solved the problem then please mark this thread as Solved in the Thread Tools at the top.