i broke a cd in half--how do i recover?

[OBLAMA2009]

i accidentally broke a cd rom in half that i need. is there any way to recover the data and make a copy? would taping or gluing it and copying work?

 

[tynopik]

is it valuable enough to be worth sending to a pro data recovery company?

yes: why was it on only one cd to begin with?

no: pitch it and forget it

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

A cracked or broken CD is pretty much hopeless and you can damage your drive by trying to play one.

 

[Athadeus]

I used to mutilate old AOL discs with nail clippers, hammering, scissors, and a stapler. Taped them back together and they worked just as well as new!

 

[Davidh373]

Pretty much a risk that has to be worth $20-$30 to take (may have to buy a new disk drive if it doesn't work...) Anyways, tynopik brings up a great point. CDs are Cheap, DVDs are cheap, hell, even HDDs are cheap. Why was this data only on a dusty old CD (probably loose on the floor or something.) They are VERY difficult to even warp, yet alone snap in half. If it's an old program, find a download and use the serial, if it's data then you are pretty much shafted unless you send it to a pro.

 

[dpodblood]

Take it to a professional.

 

[PottedMeat]

I used to mutilate old AOL discs with nail clippers, hammering, scissors, and a stapler. Taped them back together and they worked just as well as new!

This works great. I use dichloromethane drops on the pieces then stick them together. It has the added bonus of stitching together the misaligned bits.

 

[Numenorean]

I think this guy is trolling in here.

 

[Spikesoldier]

put the cd into the microwave oven and set the timer on high for 5 seconds to mend the damage.

 

[corkyg]

Breaking a disk in half takes considerable effort. Accident? Hmmmm!

 

[Davidh373]

Breaking a disk in half takes considerable effort. Accident? Hmmmm!

My thoughts exactly. I was thinking it might have been out on the floor and he stepped on it in the right place, but even that is a stretch.

 

[Athadeus]

Nobody seemed to get my joke

Accidentally breaking a cd is like the lady who opened her car door next to mine and the wind accidentally blew it open and dented my car.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

I used to mutilate old AOL discs with nail clippers, hammering, scissors, and a stapler. Taped them back together and they worked just as well as new!

I see what you did there....

 

[Ausm]

I think this guy is trolling in here.

/agreed

 

[OBLAMA2009]

thanks everyone. the cd went with a book and somehow got crushed but it looks like the publisher will send me a replacement for free, in case anyone else ever has to deal with this problem, just call publisher tech support

 

[ImpulsE69]

This truely can happen. I once dropped a cd that had a major portion of my project final on it. Somehow it landed just so that it actually broke a big chunk out of the cd. I was fortunate that it did not get to the portion with data written on it, however it wouldn't play in a drive. Enough masking tape worked like a charm.

 

[Blain]

thanks everyone. the cd went with a book and somehow got crushed but it looks like the publisher will send me a replacement for free, in case anyone else ever has to deal with this problem, just call publisher tech support

Since we aren't Nostradamus...
Which publisher?
Or is it every publisher?

 

[Throckmorton]

CDs crack with little stress sometimes. I have a spindle of blank CDRs and when I went to use one, the top 2 or 3 had cracks from the center radiating outward

 

[bendixG15]

Since we aren't Nostradamus...
Which publisher?
Or is it every publisher?

Easy enough ... just call the publisher of the book that came with the CD ... who else ??

 

[mmntech]

I used to mutilate old AOL discs with nail clippers, hammering, scissors, and a stapler. Taped them back together and they worked just as well as new!

Wouldn't the centrifugal force rip it apart, sending shrapnel all over your CD drive?

 

[fffblackmage]

Wouldn't the centrifugal force rip it apart, sending shrapnel all over your CD drive?

I actually remember reading something about an "exploding" cd drive once... in a really old issue of Maximum PC.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Since we aren't Nostradamus...
Which publisher?
Or is it every publisher?

i think almost any publisher will do it for you, because i got another cd from a different publisher about 10 years ago. this publisher was wadsworth. but be sure to talk to tech support, which all the publishers with cd's have. if you just talk to customer service theyll try to sell you a whole book.

 

[jlee]

I actually remember reading something about an "exploding" cd drive once... in a really old issue of Maximum PC.

One of those 72x Kenwood CD-ROM drives?

 

[fffblackmage]

I actually still have the July 2000 issue of MaxPC. Here it is:

 

[Avogadro]

The "Exploding CD" was featured on a very early episode of Mythbusters, IIRC. I think they cited that article as the source for the myth.