Okay, so I’ve got this CDROM that I’ve purchased legally, and I can’t seem to read certain files on the CD. Tells me there is some sort of CRC check stuff…
So, I email the manufacturer, and they tell me that “it’s a known issue with some CDROM drives, please return the CDs in exchange for something else”.
When I try to create an ISO image, I’m told that the last 300kbytes cannot be read, and therefore the ISO image will be corrupt.
Does anyone have a solution, or similar problems?
Your OP is a bit confusing to me. Is this a hardware issue with a misbehaving CDRW drive or are you trying to crack a protected CD’s copy protection scheme?
Re hardware, misbehaving CDRW drives aren’t working fooling with timewise. You can new ones, loaded with features for $20- $30 after rebate. If it’s a hardware issue just trash it and get a new one.
If this is a question about cloning commercial music or data CDs and the CD won’t cooperate with being imaged properly, this is not the right message board for those questions.
Since you say you bought the disk legally, I’ll assume that the contents of the disk had a value to you that exceeeds its cost, and you are simply unhappy that the manufacturer chose to package it in a manner that “has known issues with certain CDROM drives.” Although you didn’t specify why the manufacturer wanted you to return the disk (for refund or replacement with a working version) I’ll assume the former, because there would be little reason (except time pressure) not to take up a manufacturer’s offer to replace with a working version, but a refund would still leave you with whatever need/problem caused you to purchase the CD in the first place.
Having said that, I don’t understand why you’d want to make an .iso or other CD image (which may have led to the previous poster’s suspicions). The backup would very likely have the same issues as the original. There are exceptions, of course, but the world of CDs (CD-R, -RW) isn’t as wild and woolly as it was just five years ago. The commonest “known issue” is that some older CD drives can only reliably read the original “650MB/70min” standard. Today “700MB/80min” is a de facto standard, and most the hardware of drives can readily go beyond that. If the actual file structure is too large to fit in 650MB (e.g. VCDs), so you might need to split the file to 2 CDs and reconstruct it on your hard drive.
Older drives can also have issues with some CD-R media. Lower quality media that was only QC’d to 650 MB can also cause CRC errors. Such media is often seen only in the bulk purchase market, not retail. Sometimes they record okay, but the final tracks are somewhat unstable over time. The manufacturer would of course prefer to blame your drive, not their cost-cutting on media. Its even possible that they don’t realize (or haven’t told their CSRs) the real reason, since the problem would show up most often in the least capable drives.
Another problem (which probably does apply here, for several reasons) is a sloppy compilation (e.g. a master CD that contains less than 650MB is updated in a manner that works for them, but not your drive, then tossed into a CD duplicator that blindly replicates the sploppy, wasteful file structure, includidng older supercede versions of any updated files) I mention this, because the file structure of these CDs can often be read on another machine and copied to a CD that works without a problem. (The redundant or suspercede material simply gets discarded)
The simplest solution would probably be to image it on another machine whose drive didn’t have these known issues. However, as I noted, the copy would still probably not work on your machine. A CD image may copy problems in the original
Another possibility for remedying CRC issues might be to use a program like BadCopy to recover the contents of the CD, save them to a hard drive, and then trying to copy them onto a CD in a format your drive can read. You might need to do this on another drive, since your drive may simply be unable to access some of the tracks at all, whether due to drive or media limitations.
If BadCopy can’t retrieve the files to your HD, I’d give up on using your drive to access it. I’ve read excellent user reports of its success rate. If other dr5ives can’t read it either, I’d give up on the CD altogether. There are other tricks, but you’re quickly getting into the realm of rapidly diminishing returns.
Hmm… perhaps the phrasing is unclear.
The CD is physically flawless, and of a legal source. Certain files, however, are reported by Win XP as having failed the CRC check. Now, although this is normally due to a defective disk, I contacted the manufacturers, and they held that it was a “common problem with certain CDROM drives”. And basically told me that there was no remedy.
What I’d like to know is, is there any workaround this, at all? Or do I have to suck it up and get a new CDROM drive? (Bit of a problem, as I’m running on a laptop at the moment) I really don’t see how this manufacturer could have put out a CD that consistently wouldn’t be read by certain CDROM drives. And since drivers are standardised, there shouldn’t be a driver problem.
Now, I tried to get around this problem by imaging the disk, thinking that maybe it would help, and it did, for certain files. But still, it was reported that 300kb of the disk “could not be read”.
I realise that this is treading on legally shifty ground, and if the solution to my problem cannot be answered, then perhaps I should ask, why are there such incompatibilities? Isn’t there some sort of standard that CR manufacturers should be held to?