Vista - Reading defective CDs sometimes hangs the entire Windows

Sometimes while I try to read defective CDs or DVDs Windows (95,98,
NT, 2000, XP) hangs and become unresponsive, sometimes even to CTRL+ALT
+CANC, continuing to try to read the disk forever, so that I have to
reboot (loosing my unsaved data!) to regain the control of my PC.

Is there a solution to this problem? does Vista still have this
problem?

"Luca Villa" <lucavilla@cashette.com> wrote in message
news:1178218313.734765.258460@y80g2000hsf.googlegroups.com
> Sometimes while I try to read defective CDs or DVDs Windows (95,98,
> NT, 2000, XP) hangs and become unresponsive, sometimes even to
> CTRL+ALT +CANC, continuing to try to read the disk forever, so that I
> have to reboot (loosing my unsaved data!) to regain the control of my
> PC.
>
> Is there a solution to this problem? does Vista still have this
> problem?

Are you sure they are defective discs? As do they work in other drives?
As the majority of the time, this is a sign of a flaky laser and/or
drive.

--
Bill

Luca Villa wrote:
> Sometimes while I try to read defective CDs or DVDs Windows (95,98,
> NT, 2000, XP) hangs and become unresponsive, sometimes even to CTRL+ALT
> +CANC, continuing to try to read the disk forever, so that I have to
> reboot (loosing my unsaved data!) to regain the control of my PC.
>
> Is there a solution to this problem? does Vista still have this
> problem?
>

The solution is to not try and read defective disks. This is not
operating system-dependent. What *is* operating system-dependent is what
Windows often does to the data transfer method - drops it down to PIO -
when there are errors. See MVP Hans-Georg Michna's explanation and fix
for that:

http://www.michna.com/kb/WxDMA.htm


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

"BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in news:OfNihXbjHHA.3708
@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl:

> "Luca Villa" <lucavilla@cashette.com> wrote in message
> news:1178218313.734765.258460@y80g2000hsf.googlegroups.com
>> Sometimes while I try to read defective CDs or DVDs Windows (95,98,
>> NT, 2000, XP) hangs and become unresponsive, sometimes even to
>> CTRL+ALT +CANC, continuing to try to read the disk forever, so that I
>> have to reboot (loosing my unsaved data!) to regain the control of my
>> PC.
>>
>> Is there a solution to this problem? does Vista still have this
>> problem?
>
> Are you sure they are defective discs? As do they work in other drives?
> As the majority of the time, this is a sign of a flaky laser and/or
> drive.
>

Also, it could be an AV app scanning a huge file on the CD/DVD which may
appear to hang Windows.

What problem? This'll happen sometimes. See what Malke said. :-)

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Luca Villa" <lucavilla@cashette.com> wrote in message
news:1178218313.734765.258460@y80g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Sometimes while I try to read defective CDs or DVDs Windows (95,98,
> NT, 2000, XP) hangs and become unresponsive, sometimes even to CTRL+ALT
> +CANC, continuing to try to read the disk forever, so that I have to
> reboot (loosing my unsaved data!) to regain the control of my PC.
>
> Is there a solution to this problem? does Vista still have this
> problem?
>

> Are you sure they are defective discs? As do they work in other drives?
> As the majority of the time, this is a sign of a flaky laser and/or
> drive.

I presume it because:
1: the CDs I'm trying to read are masterized 5 to 8 years ago and if
it's true that the average
life on a CD is 3 years they must be atleast very probably partially
defective
2: my drive can read some files from them, and hangs on other files
trying to read them continually (I presume from led and noise...)
3: my drive can usually read new masterized CDs without problems

> Also, it could be an AV app scanning a huge file on the CD/DVD which may
> appear to hang Windows.

Can't be. I actually don't have any AV installed and they are all
video files.

> The solution is to not try and read defective disks.

Sometimes I have important data on these disks that I want to try to
recover and sometimes I don't have near to me an electronic microscope
and a spare bionic brain to analyze the disk for defects before
inserting it in my CD reader and trying to read it

> This is not operating system-dependent.

I don't think so. I remember that in MS-DOS I always got the Abort,
Retry, Ignore when CRC errors in CD reading occurred. It never hanged
on CD reading or atleast I don't remember it.

> What *is* operating system-dependent is what
> Windows often does to the data transfer method - drops it down to PIO -
> when there are errors.

And does dropping down it to PIO normally implies that Windows hangs?

> See MVP Hans-Georg Michna's explanation and fix
> for that: http://www.michna.com/kb/WxDMA.htm

Interesting. Now I read it. Thanks!

> > See MVP Hans-Georg Michna's explanation and fix
> > for that: http://www.michna.com/kb/WxDMA.htm
>
> Interesting. Now I read it. Thanks!

I read it fully. Very interesting but I don't understand a thing:
isn't it sufficient to change the Transfer Mode from "PIO Only" to
"DMA if available" in Secondary IDE Channel Properties - Advanced
Settings?

On 3 May 2007 15:12:35 -0700, Luca Villa <lucavilla@cashette.com>
wrote:

>> Are you sure they are defective discs? As do they work in other drives?
>> As the majority of the time, this is a sign of a flaky laser and/or
>> drive.
>
>I presume it because:
>1: the CDs I'm trying to read are masterized 5 to 8 years ago and if
>it's true that the average
>life on a CD is 3 years they must be atleast very probably partially
>defective
>2: my drive can read some files from them, and hangs on other files
>trying to read them continually (I presume from led and noise...)
>3: my drive can usually read new masterized CDs without problems

As lame as it sounds, you can often read some CDs on one computer, but
not another. I've burned CDs that would only play back on the PC that
created them. I burned others that would play back on any player
EXCEPT the one that created them. I burned CDs that wouldn't play,
after repeatedly trying, then played fine a few weeks later on the
same machine.

If all else fails two things you can try:

Try to copy the contents use the old DOS copy command from a command
prompt. I've done this with some degree of success. Usually you don't
recover everything, but enough to make the attempt worth the effort.

If the data you're trying to get is really important one of several of
the electric CD/DVD cleaner machines actually DO work... sometimes. I
picked up a Memororex OptiFix Pro for maybe $20 or so at Fry's and
while it didn't always work it worked enough to pay for itself.