My computer doesnt recognise old cds

[josephine123]

I was trying to rip some of my older cds to put them on my mp3 player but a lot of them werent recognised at all - the drive just appeared to be empty. I bought the cds approx four years ago...is there anything i can do to be able to rip them?

[wideboy]

Are they original CDs or copies on CDR/CDRW?

[alunrw]

Does it recognise newer ones, if so that should rule out the drive being faulty and would suggest it's the Discs that are at fault - would it be worth running a CD Lens cleaner to see if that helps?

[Thumper GT]

As wideboy suggests, some CD writers of a few years ago had a tendency to create disks that only they could read, but you don't say how old your computer is? A new high-speed CD drive can be purchased for around �20 these days, and a writer will only cost you a little bit more, maybe �35, and they're usually pretty simple to fit.

The bottom line is, CD's and drives aren't universally cross-compatible. I have two drives, and if a CD won't read in one, it usually does in the other! On the whole I've found writers to be more accommodating than pure readers, if you follow.

[BetsyLou]

Not sure of the technical aspects, but really a four-year-old CD isn't that old. For example, I've ripped CDs bought in the early '90s, and they've been fine, despite my frequent abuse of them (leaving them in piles out of their cases and so on). So, from this possibly atypical experience, I suggest that the drive is at fault rather than the CDs, assuming they're original shop-bought ones. You could try giving them a clean, though...

[josephine123]

the computer is about 2 years old and it does copy other cds (the ones im trying to rip are shop bought cds).

im so sure that i used to have some of said cds on my computer though!