Data CD detected as music CD or not at all

[MikeFarad]

Hello,
I just transferred about 500MB of data files to a CD-R disc to clean up my hard drive. The first time I loaded files from that disc, no problems. Then it began being detected as an audio CD. It would try to load as soon as the drawer closed, then, after a couple of minutes, Windows Media Player would open. I uninstalled WMP. Now I get a "please insert disc into drive M" dialog box. No problem with other CDs. My OS is Windows ME and I am using Easy CD Creator 4.05(updated driver and everything looks OK in Device Manager) with an HP CD-Writer Plus. I understand this is not an uncommon problem but can find no answers. I have some fairly important files on that CD and would appreciate any help in retrieving them. TIA

[DragonNOA1]

The drive may have a little dust in it, and the CD may have an error on it. Was it a good quality CD? Did you burn it correctly? But besides that I have no answers.

[morriswindgate]

Does the disk have any MP3 files on it?

[MikeFarad]

I removed and cleaned the CD-Writer drive. Then after a couple of rather unpleasant hours of crashes, unsuccessful restores, trying to un- then re-install Easy CD Creator( finally found RoxiZap), I finally got ECDC running and upgraded to 4.05. I tried a data CD that I knew was good. It loaded normally and I was able to open any of the files on it. Then I inserted the problem CD. It loaded for a couple of minutes(the disk indicated it was full) until the flashing green light turned to a steady amber. I then clicked the drive's icon. It opened as a music CD with one file showing titled "track 01", a CDA file. When I clicked on this, it called for Winamp, which I had uninstalled. I re-installed Winamp(5) and tried a music CD I had made that I knew was OK. It played all the tracks, which were also CDA files. I re-inserted the "bad" disk. Winamp displayed 'track 01' just as with the good music CD, but nothing played, of course. The CD in question is a Sony CD-R, configured by Easy CD Creator to "create a data disc that will be accessible through a drive letter". It containes no MP3 files.

PS - After it was first made, I could open the data files I'd saved on it. TIAA

[glc]

Reinstall DirectCD.

[MikeFarad]

I had just re-installed "DirectCD" from the HP recovery disc. After seeing your post, I checked and discovered I didn't have the latest version, so I updated - v3.01 to 3.05. Although the drive works better now, no difference with that particular CD. I also cleaned the disk but that didn't help either.

[glc]

You can try converting that particular disk to an ISO cd. It's been a while since I've messed with Adaptec/Roxio, but I think you can do this with Scandisk. (Not Windows scandisk - scandisk that comes with the CD burning package)

[MikeFarad]

Inserted disk in CD-RW drive. After 2-3min, a window opened showing audio CD, track01. Went to programs > Adaptec DirectCD > ScanDisk. A dialog box appeared acknowledging the CD(audio) was loaded in the drive and that ScanDisk would check it. After the scan was completed, this message appeared "ScanDisk is unable to access this disk. The disk may be severely damaged......". Physically there is no evidence that the disk was 'severely damaged'. My drive just won't recognize it for what it is. It won't open in my CD-ROM drive, so I was thinking of trying it on another computer. I guess any CD-RW drive would be OK as long as the computer's OS is not XP. (I understand there is an inherent incompatibility between ECDC 4 and Windows XP). Would there be any danger of corrupting the CD-RW software on the other computer?

[Craig100]

If you are not using your CD-Writer drive to read the CD, have you got the appropriate UDF reader installed? you may need it to read the cd properly. if you are using the cd-writer drive, then its still worth a try installing one, one should be avaialble from roxio's site :) that is the creator of easy cd creator now, however your version was prob made by adaptec?

[Craig100]

I have found one that may work as well, u may need an older version tho http://download.com.com/3000-2100-9497911.html?tag=lst-0-1

[glc]

If Scandisk says the disk is damaged, you are probably out of luck. You do need to try to open it in another computer that's UDF capable to confirm. The damage is not necessarily physically visible.

[foghat46]

I hate to tell you this, but I ran into a very similar situation a little over a year ago using Direct CD, I was never able to recover the data on the disc. My frustrations with Adaptec resulted in me switching to Nero, and I've been happy with Nero and InCD (their version of UDF) ever since.