OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

[neilthecellist]

HELP people! My CD-RW's that I burned a while back (few weeks ago) show up in Windows as "blank" all of a sudden, or they are listed as "Corrupted". I've scanned for spyware/adware/viruses and nothing came up. I have all these backups on CD's that I can't easily redownload, so I MUST recover the data on these CD-RW's...I have a 50 pack of CD-RW's, all of which have precious data on them.

[LtData]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

Try another computer, mabye. Also, did you use packet-writing software to burn these CDs, or just burnt them as regular CDs? Did the CDs work right after you burned them?

[ChristinaS]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

All of a sudden? you mean before they were ok?

[neilthecellist]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

All of a sudden? you mean before they were ok?

Yes. And LtData, I've already tried it on my brother's computer and none of my RW's work either.

[neilthecellist]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

bump/update:

When I first burned the CD-RW's, they worked when they were done. Now that I've tried them, they don't work anymore!

[xoas]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

I don't suppose you burned temporary files on those discs did you?

Can you open any of these through Start>My Computer>(your cd-rw drive here).
If so, are some files corrupted or are all files?
Can you open them through dAP, WinAmp, WMP or will they simply not show up?
What program(s) did you use to create these discs? Can you read these discs through that (or one of those) program(s)?
What formats are these music files? Could you have deleted the codecs used to burn them?

Have these discs been exposed to excessive heat, strong magnetic fields or any such?
How have you stored them?

Best wishes,
Bill

[ChristinaS]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

What do you see on such a cd when you look at it in Windows Explorer?

Were they burned as audio cd's or data cd's?

Might you be looking at actually blank cd's while the burned ones are sitting elsewhere? (I know, silly question, but it's been done before )

[neilthecellist]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

I immediately removed the CDRW from my player and threw the disc into the wall, shattering it to about eight pieces. I remember that I could throw Maxell CD-Rs against everything but a brick wall and still be able to play it back flawlessly, honestly!

OMG, read this reviews: http://www.dealtime.com/xPR-Memorex_...Speed_32023426


I'm so stupid. I can't believe I purchased Memorex crap. I won't do this again.

[LtData]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

One bad apple doesn't mean everything they produce is crap. Every company screws up at some point or another. See: Windows ME. :D

[ChristinaS]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

Neil, those reviews don't indicate mysterious desintegration of all those CD-RW's after they've been readable for soem time.

They indicate an immediate problem - it works ro deosn't work right away.

I don't see how they will all of a sudden become unreadable.

My guess is that you've changed something in your cd rom drive settings which means it now no longer can read CD-RW cd's.

I don't use CD-RW - Never got around to use them, I think I have a couple unused ones sitting soemwhere. Regular cd's are cheap enough. I get a spindle with 100 for something like $25.

[Bill41]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

I also bought some of these Memorex 24X CD-RWs. I have a TDK 840G DVD-RW drive and after writing to this media using Nero, I found that my TDK drive could not read the CD-RWs. After some research I found my TDK drive could only handle 4X CD-RW media even though I could burn these CDs at 24X using Nero with no problem. The bad news is the TDK drive will not read them after it burns them. The GOOD news is that I found I can put them in a regular old DVD ROM drive and it will read them with no problem. I hope this helps.
Bill

[neilthecellist]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

Ultra Speed CD-RW media is underdeveloped for 700MB. Stability would be 650 MB, I can't remember where I read that yesterday, my histories got cleared (stupid older brother looks at pr0n), but I know the following things now:

1. Memorex sucks.
2. Memorex doesn't make media, it's all property of Infodisc, with the Memorex labels slapped on.
3. Memorex media breaks easily: throw a memorex media at a wall and it shatters, throw a competitor's media, it's virtually usable again.
4. Memorex media doesn't work.
5. Memorex executives deserve to *insert profane word here*
6. When Memorex media does burn correctly/verify, it'll work for a few months, then later, the media stops reading for no reason.

[LtData]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

I've had perfect experiences with Memorex media. Yes, CD-RW media. I burned it and it worked months later.
As for throwing CDs at a wall... what the crap are you thinking? You don't throw CDs against ANYTHING and expect them to work. If you throw ANYBODY'S CDs at a wall hard enough, they WILL break.
And there is other media that will work for a while then die. Its not just Memorex. You're overreacting, neil. As you said, they don't make their own discs. Therefore, they are not directly at fault for the bad discs. See if they are still selling exactly these CDs. If they are, THEN you can yell and foam at the mouth about Memorex.

[ChristinaS]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

Neil, it's simply impossible for ALL those CD-RW disks which you once wrote to, to be dead at the same time. Stop ranting about Memorex and check what else may be wrong in your system. Or open some drawers and look for the cd's which you recorded because maybe now you're looking at blanks cd's.

Did you burn them as audio cd's or data cd's?

[xoas]

Re: OMG....CD-RW problem, VERY big problem

Neil-
You might want to refer to the following document to help your understanding of the ins and outs of cd-rw's:

http://www.memorex.com/downloads/whitepapers/Reference%20Guide%20for%20Optical%20Media%209-9.pdf

Researching this, you wil see that ultra-speed cd-rw's can only be written to by ultra-speed cd-rw drives. I suspect that this goes a long way to explain both the negative reviews you have cited and Bill41's observation also.

However, as Christina has pointed out, if this had been the source of your problem the discs could not have been burned in the first place. I have not used ultra-speed cd-rw's or cd-r's but I have had fine experience with Memorex cd-r's and dvd-r's. I think your best course of action at this time would be to pursue Christina's advice.

Best wishes,
Bill