CD
- Won't read CD Disks
There are occasions when a CD Drive will not read CD Disks:
- When the
CD Disk is dirty
- When the
CD Drive read/write lens is dirty
- CDRom
on certain PCs/laptops may not read CD copies.
(Note this applies to CD Writers and DVD also)
Grease and dirt from fingers or other sources
acts as a barrier to the CD Drive’s lazer light.
Clean the CD Disk with a light detergent, rinse
and thoroughly dry, or use an anti-static or specialist cleaning fluid again
waiting for the disk to dry.
Re-try the clean, dry disk inside the CD Drive.
If the CD Disk is a copy made by a CDRW (CD Writer), then see:
CDRom on
certain PCs/laptops may not read CD copies.
CD Drive read/write lens is dirty
CD Drives can act up, especially in companies or
organisations where the PCs are used for all the normal purposes (WP ,
Spreadsheets, Databases. .etc) but hardly used with CD Disks.
This lack of use means that dust and dirt can
accumulate in the CD Drive.
Because this is inside the CD Drive, you can't
really get at it. There are CD Lens Cleaners on the market. Don't over-use these as such overuse may damage the lens.
CD recorded by My CDRW won’t read on another computer’s CD Rom
Different CD Writer Drives, can write to blank
disks using different formats. This can effect reading of these disks on CDRoms
of some computers/laptops. (The quality of the blank CD disks also seems to
have an effect in this regard).
You may you keep a CD for all your downloaded software (patches and utilities for your PC). Now, when you put the CD Disk into another PC or laptop, you may find that it won’t read it because the other PC’s CDRom does not recognize the format.
Whilst the copied CD will be recognised by your CDRW or any other PC with the same CDRW, it may not be recognised by some CDRoms. This is because when CD’s are recorded there are different recoding formats eg:
ISO - 9660 - Can be recognised by many PCs but will show short filenames.
Joliet – Can be recognised in DOS.
UDF – Recognised by any PC provided it has a UDF reader (see below)
The newer format is UDF.
UDF Format:
If your CDRW is an Adaptec (now taken over by Roxio), then it is supplied with a UDF reader. This is a small program (around 400Kb) and can be placed on a diskette. From the diskette install the UDF reader on the other PC, and then that PC will recognise the copied CD (provided it was recorded without any error).
If you don’t have the UDF reader setup program, then visit and download it from http://www.roxio.com/en/support/udfwin/index.html
NERO Burning ROM
This program gives you the choice to record is ISO or UDF/ISO format, DOS, ASCII
(Joliet is used as a secondary volume descriptor) and the usually Video and
mixed recordings.
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