Disc Problems

[flashgaza]

:( Hi
I have recently returned from Canada were I had my images from my ixus v2 downloaded on to disc. On returning to Australia I was able to view the pictures without a problem. Now when I insert and try to read the disc it does not read the disc saying that the disc is empty. I have tried this on several computers with the same result. I now the pics are still on there. As these pictures are invaluable to me is there any way that the pics can be recovered.

[rsnadel]

What kind of disc are you referring to? Compact Disc? Floppy Disc? If it's a CD, is it possible the surface of the disc was somehow scratched or otherwise damaged in a way that would make it unreadable? If you're using a PC (as opposed to a Mac), can you see any signs of data when examining the disc through Windows Explorer? Do you have a program that can copy the contents of the CD to a hard drive, in order to make another CD?

[flashgaza]

The disc is a CD-R (2 discs that were burnt at the same camera shop) all other discs that I downloaded pictures onto on the same trip are okay. There is no data present so that I can copy them onto another disc.

[Ikinaa]

Did you leave them in the sunshine?
UV is very bad for CD-Rs... (heat also...)

[rsnadel]

There is no data present so that I can copy them onto another disc.

Was this disc protected against scratches or other imperfections marring the underside? The only thing I can think of, based on your earlier comment that the pictures recorded on to this CD were viewable initially, is that the recording surface was damaged.

[Bodryn]

I do know there are places that can probably recover your data; first thing I'd do is try and locate a smart kid, perferably a computer nerd, who could probably use some utility he has to give you an idea of what's going on with your CD. I have no doubt that the data is still on the CD, but it may be that the file allocation data area has been damaged so as to give you a false result. I've never worked with a damaged CD but I used to use DOS utilities to get information off floppy disks that had been damaged. The old DOS Norton utilities were good at this.