Problem CD files 0 bytes

[albridi]

Hello guys, good evening.

I have a problem with a CD that was burned a loooong time ago. It's a backup I made around the year 2000, a year up, a year down.

The thing is that when I try to recover the data, I find that the disk is burned, the entire structure of files and folders are there, intact, you can point to them with the mouse and try to copy them. But surprisingly ALL the files and folders have 0 bytes of information and do not allow to be copied, they say they are read-only.

I have tried to read the disk in several drives, but nothing, same result. I have put the drives in PIO mode and in DMA, there has been no change at all. I have tried to read it in different operating systems using virtual machines (Linux, Win98, WinXP, Win10...), it has also been to no avail. I have used Nero Essentials, CDburnerXP, Recuva, nothing, there is no way.

Do you know any solution to this problem? Is there a solution or should I consider the data lost? Thank you.

Best regards.

[Sylver]

Hello,

Of course it is a strange issue, because those things do happen with flash drives or hard drives, but with CDs I think it is the first time I have heard of it.

Just off the top of my head... Have you tried burning the CD to a blank CD? For a few cents it might be worth a try.

The recovery software that always worked well for me was Ontrack EasyRecovery, although it is similar to Recuva, it might not be of any use, but just in case I mention it.

Best regards

[Fassou]

@albridi The first thing is to test it on a player that we know works well at 100%

The other possibility is that the copy was done by dragging the files into some Windows Explorer assistant from XP or an earlier OS, and it only copied the structure.

If the CD were damaged on its surface, you could have problems copying some file, but that they all come out as 0 bytes...

Salu2!

[albridi]

@Sylver thanks for responding. I have tried burning from CD to CD, and also creating an ISO. CDburnerXP has not been able to, and Nero has only made an NRG image riddled with irreparable errors, which when I try to read it tells me it is an audio file and that it cannot be mounted, a madness.

I know EasyRecovery, I had it years ago and it rescued me some things. I will try to download its demo, if there is one, to see what result it gives, thanks for reminding me.

Best regards.

[albridi]

@Fassou thanks for your reply.

So far I have not had any problems with that reader, but even if I did, I have tried several readers with the same result.

Back then I used Nero for copies, I didn't drag directly from the explorer, I always did it from within the software. And yes, the system was XP at 99% security, although it is possible that it was Win 98SE. In any case I have mounted both in VirtualBox, and they are not able to read the CD, not even the file structure with 0bytes that the host W10 detects.

The fact is that there are already 2 CDs that present the same problem, both recorded around the year 2000, both from the same brand. Very strange.

Best regards.

[Fassou]

@albridi About virtual machines, they are just emulations and do not improve the physical capabilities of the peripheral.

If you want to try with another OS, use LiveCD's (better in their USB versions) or some software like Hiren's where you will also find some recovery program.

Anyway, the duration of data integrity on CD medium depends a lot on the quality of the medium but also on the storage conditions, especially when it comes to recorded discs.

Some studies on the subject at US Library Congress

As you may already know, there are professional recovery services, if the data is really important, but if it is more of a personal project (DIY), you will already tell us if things finally improve with some of the home remedies that you have probably already found on the net.

Good luck

[albridi]

@Fassou SOLVED!!! !!!

It turns out that VirtualBox recognizes my burner as read-only by default, but there is a "passthrough" option that you can activate, and from that moment on it recognizes it correctly as a DVD/RAM drive and not as a CD-ROM, which was what it recognized until now.

Once changed, I put the disc back in, and lo and behold, a Nero application called InCD popped up, and it recognized it perfectly, as read-only because it is an OEM version of Nero, but with all the data intact, which allowed me to recover it.

So, yes, back then I burned them with Nero, but with its InCD version, which turned the CD into a kind of USB drive, or something like that.

Thanks for the help !

Regards.

[Fassou]

@albridi I'm glad for the happy ending

That's what you get for using weird inventions to save data

Cheers!

[albridi]

@Fassou jajajajajaja, totally, lesson learned .

Saludos!