Opendisc CD kills drive

[SP0]

I have one specific disk which does the following when I try to rip with CD ripper release 14 under Windows 7, 64-bit:

- when disc is inserted, disc spins for a very long time (maybe 5-8 minutes) while CD ripper remains in "Reading CD" mode
- dbPowerAmp then eventually recognises the CD and shows all track names, album art etc
- when I hit "rip" I get an "Unable to read CD" error for every track because by then, the CD drive has disappeared from the system (device not visible in Explorer)
- I can't access the drive again until I reboot my system to bring it back.

I have two DVD drives and the same thing happens on either of them.

This CD (the first of a 2-disc set of Handel published on Virgin Classics - the second CD works fine) is an "OPENDISC" CD, in case that is a contributor to the problem.

How might I get around this please?

[Spoon]

Re: Opendisc CD kills drive

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opendisc

The disc is copy protected, that said the drive disappearing from the system indicates it is crashing internally, which they should never do. If the drives are different makes, it suggests this opendisc has installed something nasty in to the low level of your system, you might want to contact opendisc to find out if they have installed something nasty.

[SP0]

Re: Opendisc CD kills drive

Hmm. It's unfortunate that dBpoweramp can't read these discs (although I also will be careful never to buy another of these horrid things!).

It may be a case of Windows 7 being too clever. It seems these Opendisc things are "mixed mode" CDs and Windows 7 shows it as an "enhanced CD" in Explorer. I would have thought dBpoweramp could still read the audio tracks, but this seems not to be the case. Tried EAC with same result.

In the end I put the CD into a Mac, which shows two virtual devices - Audio CD and the data part - I was able to dismount the latter. The ripper "Max" was able to access the audio tracks just fine, and rip them to FLAC.

I hope I never see another of these Opendisc CDs but it might be worth keeping an eye on how to get the audio tracks off a mixed mode CD - not sure whether this is a special problem with Opendisc or might be more general.