Hey all,

I have an old CD with pictures on it that was written under and earlier 
version of Windows
when it was easy to add data to a CD and, if you weren't careful, make 
everything already on
the CD unreadable. Presumable the data is still there. The data was 
readable until quite recently
added another picture. Now it is the only file readable. Disk properties 
shows the disk to be about
half full.Does anybody know of any easily available software that could 
recover it?

Thanks,
David

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Le 14/08/2009 17:29, David H. Burns nous fit lire :
> Hey all,
> 
> I have an old CD with pictures on it that was written under and earlier
> version of Windows
> when it was easy to add data to a CD and, if you weren't careful, make
> everything already on
> the CD unreadable. Presumable the data is still there. The data was
> readable until quite recently
> added another picture. Now it is the only file readable. Disk properties
> shows the disk to be about
> half full.Does anybody know of any easily available software that could
> recover it?

you need a software able to select & read the previous sessions of the CD.
IsoBuster might be what you want on windows.

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Le_Forgeron wrote:
> Le 14/08/2009 17:29, David H. Burns nous fit lire :
>> Hey all,
>>
>> I have an old CD with pictures on it that was written under and earlier
>> version of Windows
>> when it was easy to add data to a CD and, if you weren't careful, make
>> everything already on
>> the CD unreadable. Presumable the data is still there. The data was
>> readable until quite recently
>> added another picture. Now it is the only file readable. Disk properties
>> shows the disk to be about
>> half full.Does anybody know of any easily available software that could
>> recover it?
> 
> you need a software able to select & read the previous sessions of the CD.
> IsoBuster might be what you want on windows.
> 
Thanks I'll look it up.

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I had a similar problem recently when I added a new file (and thus a new 
session) to a regular CDR. Only the new files were readable. I think it 
is because you can't add new sessions to CDRs. You can only add them to 
CDRWs (rewritable CDRs). Not 100% sure though.

-Mike

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On Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:10:47 -0400, SharkD wrote:

> I had a similar problem recently when I added a new file (and thus a new
> session) to a regular CDR. Only the new files were readable. I think it
> is because you can't add new sessions to CDRs. You can only add them to
> CDRWs (rewritable CDRs). Not 100% sure though.

I'm pretty sure you can add new sessions to CDRs, but the common practice 
is to import the previous session first (thus preserving the access 
information in the TOC on the disc).  If one doesn't do that, then it can 
appear that data's been lost.

Jim

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You can add new sessions to a CD provided

- you created the cd in "multisession mode"
- you did not have your cd-burner "finalize" the cd which prevents ordinary 
programs from adding additional sessions.

If you used a CD-R (not a CD-RW) the data IS still on the disk. On a CD-R 
data cannot be overwritten, it is always appended. That's the point of 
having a CD-R, the data written to it can not be deleted.

BTW: in our country it is cheaper to back up data on an external HDD than on 
CD. A 1400 GB external HDD costs about 89 EUR without VAT. You would have to 
buy 2200 CD's to store the same amount of data ;-), so HDD is cheaper, 

of storage space... the same as 570 bottles of wine.

Post a reply to this message

>> I had a similar problem recently when I added a new file (and thus a new
>> session) to a regular CDR. Only the new files were readable. I think it
>> is because you can't add new sessions to CDRs. You can only add them to
>> CDRWs (rewritable CDRs). Not 100% sure though.
> 
> I'm pretty sure you can add new sessions to CDRs, but the common practice 
> is to import the previous session first (thus preserving the access 
> information in the TOC on the disc).  If one doesn't do that, then it can 
> appear that data's been lost.

It is, indeed, possible to have multiple sessions on a CD-R. I've done it.

It is also usual to import the previous session. If you don't, Windows 
appears not to be able to "see" the previous data. Note, however, that 
AmigaOS *can*.

I've done this personally. Burn several sessions to a CD, and when you 
insert it, AmigaOS prompts you for which session you want to access. 
(Recall that AmigaOS tracks all disk insert/eject events.) You then see 
the data in the selected session only (and any data it imports).

My Amiga was using a plain ordinary IDE CD-RW drive, so it seems to me 
that a PC should be able to do the same trick, given the correct 
software. It wouldn't surprise me if something like cdparanoia can grab 
an arbitrary session, dump it into an ISO file, and then let you 
loop-mount that to read it...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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TC wrote:
> You can add new sessions to a CD provided
> 
> - you created the cd in "multisession mode"
> - you did not have your cd-burner "finalize" the cd which prevents ordinary 
> programs from adding additional sessions.
> 
> If you used a CD-R (not a CD-RW) the data IS still on the disk. On a CD-R 
> data cannot be overwritten, it is always appended. That's the point of 
> having a CD-R, the data written to it can not be deleted.
> 
> BTW: in our country it is cheaper to back up data on an external HDD than on 
> CD. A 1400 GB external HDD costs about 89 EUR without VAT. You would have to 
> buy 2200 CD's to store the same amount of data ;-), so HDD is cheaper, 
> faster and much more versatile. Besides, storing 2200 CD would use up 0.4 m� 
> of storage space... the same as 570 bottles of wine. 

Of course, you could back up to DVD or Blu-Ray, but those cost more too...

-Mike

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