Damaged photo cd. Any recovery ideas?

[lcolclough]

during a 4 month trip of asia and oz I was saying my photo's to cd as didn't have enough memory cards.

The worst happened and my CD containing most of my photograph's of angkor *** got damaged and I can't recover the files.

I have used a CD cleaning kit which recovered a few and even recovery software on the original memory card but no good.

Anyone any ideas of how else I may recover these files?

Thanks!

[admirable]

What do you get when you put the CD into the PC? Anything at all or just nothing?
What software did you use to burn the CD?
When you say the CD was damaged, is it scratched, exposed to heat/cold?

[RobertP]

Not all CD drives are created equal. Some can read things others cannot. Writer drives can be better too sometimes. try the CD in as many computers as you can - one might be able to read it.

Good luck.

[Mark]

When you say damaged, in what way? scratches?

If so you can buy kits that will remove scratches, uses a rubbing compound.

Have never used one myself but a work mate has and they work really well by all acounts

I will ask him tomorrow what it's called and post back

[foodpoison]

Get a skip doctor.
Repaired several of my broken Xbox games perfectly.

[shiato storm]

information on a cd is written on the underside of the label side, the laser then reads through the plastic which most likely gets scratched, a fine polish to remove the scratches would save the day I'm willing to bet.

[Susane]

Would a Game shop do it for her do you think lads? There'd be a charge I would think but it might be worth it to try.

[Canon Bob]

I've actually recovered a data disc using toothpaste and toilet paper when stuck at work on a Sunday. Not too scientific but shows that there's hope.

Bob

[laser_jock99]

Provided the silver information layer isn't damaged you recover almost any scratched CD's/DVD's by polishing. I have a polishing mop set up in my garage specifically set up for making rental DVD's watchable again! Takes about 10 minutes work to deal with a really badly scored disk but most times they can be made to look like new if you go through several grades of polishing compound.

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/cbk150c-6in-polishing-kit/path/bench-grinders-grinding-wheels

If you can't sort this elsewhere pm me and I'll have a go if you want.

[lcolclough]

Sorry for delay guys, been pc'less.

When put the CD in and try to copy all files over, thumbnail shows on some while others it's the image icon. But neither will copy across.

I used the CD scratch kit but that only recovered a few. What is skip doctor?

As for the toothpaste and loo roll, if all else fails......

[PapaLazarou]

Hold on to it even if you cant recover now. I had 4 DVD'S worth of images that just went funny, and no drive would read them. I hung on to them and only just today I tried them on my new PC with Vista, and the DVD'S still wouldnt load the pictures but vista let me copy them to the hard drive and then onto DVD'S that work.

[kevshore]

My wife took a cd to a game shop that I thought would need to go in the bin. Seriously deep scratches. £2 later it was like new. Don't know what machine they used, but I want one! Not because I need it but because it exsists!!!
She said it only took a couple of minutes!

[lcolclough]

Thanks for that. I'll give it a go. Sods law it had to be the best place I went to!!!

[Ajophotog]

I think I would do a copy of the CD ignoring read errors and see what you get on the new copy.