Extracting CDRs - Issues

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recce13
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Extracting CDRs - Issues

Post by recce13 »

I accumulated a very large number of CDRs back in the snail-mail trading days, and have started the process of converting them to digital FLAC format using Exact Audio Copy. It's going to be a long road, but I think it'll be worth it in the end. I have run across a problem, though, specifically with CDRs that have paste-on covers on the discs...I'm having a heck of time getting good extracts of most of them. Does anyone have any good tips or advice on how to extract from those problem CDRs?

Thanks,
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Re: Extracting CDRs - Issues

Post by Grackleflint »

I ran into the same issue. I tried a different program and a different burner, still couldn't get them. I ended up having to find downloads for a number of them. Some drives may read better, as I was able to extract a few that wouldn't play in a CD player. It seems the glue on the paper backing somehow interferes with the reader . The first year I had a burner, I pasted on covers to all my home made discs, needless to say, 90% of those are gone now. Wish I could help.
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FestVideoRoom
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Re: Extracting CDRs - Issues

Post by FestVideoRoom »

This is why you never EVER put a label on a CD-R.

What you need to remember is that the nice shiny "label" side of a CD-R is, in fact, the back of the very medium that your content is burned to. The other side is simply a clear plastic protector for that medium through which the laser of a CD player or writer shines. Any damage to THAT side can usually be buffed or polished away, but damage to the LABEL side? Forget it. Hopeless.

The trouble with labels is that over time the glue starts to shrivel and warp and does the same thing to what it's adhered to -- namely, your precious data -- rendering it absolutely corrupt and unreadable.
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fab4gear
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Re: Extracting CDRs - Issues

Post by fab4gear »

I also had this problem & I got around it on some of them by using 'Paranoid Mode' in EAC instead of 'Secure Mode', altho some say that this can burn out the optical drive if it's used too much. On some others I actually removed the paper label by soaking the CDR in warm water & gently peeling off the label, then using Lighter fuel to take off the excess glue & that worked for some of them, but some others would'nt rip no matter what I tried.
BTW. Don't leave the CDR in warm water for too long or the foil on the topside with the Data on it (underneath the stuck on label) will detach itself from the clear plastic disc as well, as I learned to my sorrow on a couple of them! I had about 20 faulty CDR's with stuck on labels from the mid 90's & I managed to salvage the music off about a dozen of them.
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Lord Reith
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Re: Extracting CDRs - Issues

Post by Lord Reith »

I've always found optical discs to be the worst format possible for archiving anything, which is funny when you think of the "perfect sound forever" mantra that got the public to switch to cds in the 80s. I noticed in the mid 2000s that cdrs and dvdrs I had that were only a few years (or sometimes months) old were throwing up errors or not playing at all. After that I kept two copies of each title on different brands until hard drives started to get cheap and I abandoned optical discs altogether.

Paper labels are a big problem yes. Also, the laser in a burner becomes "foggy" after a certain time and does not imprint the information as well. Discs burned for you by someone else on an old burner can fade away very quickly. Sometimes you can get a badly burned disc to rip properly by using a brand new drive, but not always. And some discs were just rubbish quality. When I first started buying cdrs they were very expensive, and those 20 year old discs still play. Then things went from bad to worse very rapidly when people expected to get 100 discs on a spindle for five bucks, and quality control fell through the floor. I recognised then that just as there were good cassette brands and poor cassette brands, some cdrs were bad (but in a more insidious way than cassettes, because they would appear to work fine at first... and then fail later). Verbatim was always good. Ricoh I've also never had a coaster. Many others had brand names on them but were manufactured poorly in China, and those are often the worst.
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K_A_P68
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Re: Extracting CDRs - Issues

Post by K_A_P68 »

I agree with LR. I always had good luck with Verbatim discs, have had some for years that still play perfectly and never a coaster, but for my archives I have switched to all SSD drives. Well worth the money for important stuff.
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Re: Extracting CDRs - Issues

Post by FestVideoRoom »

The most prevalent problem with older discs is that the chemical composition of the dye layer can mutate over time. I've also seen older discs affected by temperature changes... let a disc rest for a while and you can read more data from it. I once encountered a DVD-R that would only let me read it for a few minutes at a time at a certain early morning hour (presumably when ambient temperature conditions in the house were just so). Took me several days to get that one backed up properly.
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Re: Extracting CDRs - Issues

Post by recce13 »

Appreciate the tips and insights! I, too, used Verbatim for a lot of the discs I burned, but switched to Fujifilm during my later trading days. Been lucky with both of those. As for my problem with the discs with pasted-on labels, I'm been trying a few different things. I found that while I couldn't extract the music using EAC, I was able to copy the entire disc using Nero, and was then able to get more track extracted (but not all) from the new discs. I also found out that some of the discs still played okay, and used a sound capture program (Applian Replay Music) to create new FLAC files. Hopefully between those two methods, I'll be able to at least salvage a few of the discs. Thanks again, everyone!
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Lord Reith
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Re: Extracting CDRs - Issues

Post by Lord Reith »

There was also some freeware I used sometimes to copy error laden discs. It has no decryption so will only work on cdrs or home made dvdrs, but it was called "Roadkill's Unstoppable Copier".

https://www.roadkil.net/program.php/P29 ... e%20Copier

Like the name says, nothing can stop it. It will copy the whole disc (eventually) but obviously parts that are corrupted will have playback problems. If you have something of high value which you can't get a rip of any other way though, this will allow you to at least salvage some of it. Sometimes a dvdr is fine the whole way through except for one bad sector somewhere which prevents you from ripping the whole disc. In this case you will just see a glitch in the bad part or it will suddenly skip forward a bit.

It's just a file copier though, so you have to copy each VOB file or whatever separately and then pop them all in an empty VIDEO TS folder.
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Re: Extracting CDRs - Issues

Post by Egg_Crisis »

With unreadable discs, one thing I've encountered is discs that are warped, meaning you can read the first few tracks, but as you move towards the outer edge, that part of the disc is gradually further away from the laser and it fails to read it accurately. Could that be happening with the ones with labels if the label has shrunk a little? One way to tell if the disc is warped is to place the disc on a flat surface and then press down on the centre to see if it's laying flat or is the centre raised up a little. Then turn the disc over and repeat. Then all you have to do is work out how to un-warp it. I never had any luck, but didn't try too hard as the warped disc wasnt too important.
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