Why can't I read old CD-Rs?

macmediamacmedia
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Looking for some files archived on CD-R back in late '99. Out of 4 discs, I can only read 1 of them. Tried it on my Dual 1 gig and and an old 7600 running 9.x. I'm baffled. I used these discs before and had them stored in a safe so I can't imagine what went wrong with them.



OSX says "there aren't any files that OSX can read - do you want to continue? Click yes, but nothing shows up.



Any ideas on how to get the data off of them?



Chas

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    thinkingdifferentthinkingdifferent Posts: 1,604member
    What OS were these disks burned on?
  • Reply 2 of 7
    superbooksuperbook Posts: 8member
    i am experincing the exact same thing. when i try to copy to my HD i get prompted and have to click ok to continue - the files are subsequently copied but they're all zero in size. yak!



    my backup cd's are in a perfect condition and i used them not so long ago with now problem.

    in between now and then i have ofcourse installed macosx so it's not that hard to locatev the overall problem - but i can't even open the files in classic mode!



    haven't yet tried to reboot from my old 9.1

    i thinks i toasted my stuff from 9.0 and below.



    it is no all my backups that behave in this manner. only the real important ones...
  • Reply 3 of 7
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    I just looked at some CDs I burned in Mac OS with Toast from 1999 and 2000. They all work fine in OS X...
  • Reply 4 of 7
    rodukroduk Posts: 706member
    I've experienced similar problems at work burning CD-Rs on PCs. On my Mac at home, for important data I always use branded media, burn at a slow speed, and if I buy a new Mac, I read the data off the old CD-Rs using the old Mac, then burn it onto new CD-Rs using the new Mac, incase there are any alignment problems etc with one of the drives. So far I haven't had any problems.



    [ 02-25-2003: Message edited by: RodUK ]</p>
  • Reply 5 of 7
    superbooksuperbook Posts: 8member
    [quote]Originally posted by RodUK:

    <strong> if I buy a new Mac, I read the data off the old CD-Rs using the old Mac, then burn it onto new CD-Rs using the new Mac, </strong><hr></blockquote>





    so, for every new mac and operating system, you're supposed to..... backup your backup disks by backing them up? <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />



    hmm.....
  • Reply 6 of 7
    macmediamacmedia Posts: 152member
    These discs were burned using Toast in either 8.6 or 9.x (who knows what the hell I was using then!). I could understand if there was some problem only with reading them in OSX but my old 7600 is running 9.2. I still wonder why 1 worked but not the others.



    Makes me wonder about all of the other backup CD/DVDs I've got around here...



    Chas
  • Reply 7 of 7
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    use Verbatim CD's from now on and this problem will likely go away.



    they are the only cd's over 5 years old where they all still all readable to this day.



    every other brand i've ever tried will have some to most of the cd's not working at this point.
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