You double click and wait for your data to be retrieved from a CD, and then you continue waiting. Finally you get an error saying the CD is unreadable. Is there a way to recover the data from a bad CD? Indeed. You should be able to recover CD data lost due to a variety of causes and it's not that hard or complicated to do.

What types of problems can cause you to need to recover CD data? Your compact disc may become scratched from wear, be defective from the factory, or just be improperly formatted which causes data on the CD to become inaccessible or lost. The disc itself may be corrupted during the burn process. One or more sessions on a multi-session CD may need to be rescued. Loss of power during the CD writing or accessing process can also result in the loss of data.

What are some of the processes used to recover data from a compact disc? Some systems that are used to recover CD data operate the disc at a very low speed in order to examine the information in smaller than normal pieces. Trying alternative methods to decipher some blocks may also aid in recovery. In some cases the disc may be so damaged that it may be possible to only partially recover the data. If that happens, the software may use smart filling technology to recreate and rescue as much of the data as possible.

Software to recover CD data is available online and in many cases, is easily purchased and downloaded. Some of this software will recover disc data by going around Microsoft Windows and the original compact disc device driver software. This software will also have features which will allow it to recover data even if other important areas of the original media have been damaged, such as the track descriptor. Once the damaged areas have been bypassed and the data recovered, the rescued information will be then be saved to your computer's hard drive. Finally, you should re-burn and verify your rescued disc.

As you can see, a bad CD-Rom disc is no reason to panic.