How do I rip a damaged audio CD?

[Cringelix]

Hello, I need urgent help in how to rip a damaged audio CD. I found a bunch of my mom's old CDs from the early 2000s that she believed she had lost, most of them are in ok to bad shape. Her bday is coming up soon so I wanted to get an MP3 player with all the music on the CDs loaded up on it as a bday gift. They are abour 30 CDs, I have come across two of them that play just fine with some songs having a couple of hiccups, I went ahead and ripped them but they stay stuck as I can hear the DVD reader on my PC go crazy trying to read the disk while ripping. Is there a way I can rip these CDs? I have tried cleaning them well with soap and water and a soft cloth but to no avail. I heard there was a brillo option but I do not wish to damage them any more than they already are to the point where they are unplayable.  Any help will do please.

[OhioYJ]

A lot of places that buy / sell movies / games have an actual disc polishers / resurfacers and charge a few bucks to refinish a disc for you. The trick is finding a place that actually has a real machine to do it.

 

You can try something like unstoppable copy to read what's there, but it's going to be slow. The other issue is if the disc is that scratched even if you do get data from it it's likely not going to be good data.

 

Short of that, you can try and polish it yourself. Just be careful, you can damage the disc as well.

[kirashi]

17 minutes ago, Cringelix said:

Hello, I need urgent help in how to rip a damaged audio CD. I found a bunch of my mom's old CDs from the early 2000s that she believed she had lost, most of them are in ok to bad shape. Her bday is coming up soon so I wanted to get an MP3 player with all the music on the CDs loaded up on it as a bday gift. They are abour 30 CDs, I have come across two of them that play just fine with some songs having a couple of hiccups, I went ahead and ripped them but they stay stuck as I can hear the DVD reader on my PC go crazy trying to read the disk while ripping. Is there a way I can rip these CDs? I have tried cleaning them well with soap and water and a soft cloth but to no avail. I heard there was a brillo option but I do not wish to damage them any more than they already are to the point where they are unplayable.  Any help will do please.

You might want to try using a CD ripping program that supports various error correction modes. I like EAC as it has quite a few configurable options that might allow you to complete ripping a damaged CD, albeit with errors. However, if the damage is too much for your particular CD drive to handle, it's possible that no software will allow you to properly rip the entire CD.

https://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/support/faq/extraction-questions/

[Cringelix]

28 minutes ago, kirashi said:

You might want to try using a CD ripping program that supports various error correction modes. I like EAC as it has quite a few configurable options that might allow you to complete ripping a damaged CD, albeit with errors. However, if the damage is too much for your particular CD drive to handle, it's possible that no software will allow you to properly rip the entire CD.

https://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/support/faq/extraction-questions/

 

30 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

A lot of places that buy / sell movies / games have an actual disc polishers / resurfacers and charge a few bucks to refinish a disc for you. The trick is finding a place that actually has a real machine to do it.

 

You can try something like unstoppable copy to read what's there, but it's going to be slow. The other issue is if the disc is that scratched even if you do get data from it it's likely not going to be good data.

 

Short of that, you can try and polish it yourself. Just be careful, you can damage the disc as well.

Hmm, I will look into both of these solutions. I heard something online about EAC but something about it being a hassle to setup.

[Cringelix]

44 minutes ago, kirashi said:

You might want to try using a CD ripping program that supports various error correction modes. I like EAC as it has quite a few configurable options that might allow you to complete ripping a damaged CD, albeit with errors. However, if the damage is too much for your particular CD drive to handle, it's possible that no software will allow you to properly rip the entire CD.

https://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/support/faq/extraction-questions/

I tried EAC but in the startup config it prompted me to insert a CD, no matter what kind of disk I'd insert it would just eject it everytime after a couple seconds of the initial CD spool up inside the drive.

[kirashi]

16 hours ago, Cringelix said:

I tried EAC but in the startup config it prompted me to insert a CD, no matter what kind of disk I'd insert it would just eject it everytime after a couple seconds of the initial CD spool up inside the drive.

Sounds like your disc drive might be wearing out. How long have you had it and what is the EXACT make and model of disc drive?

[HenrySalayne]

@Cringelix

Maybe this will give some insight:
https://john-millikin.com//why-i-ripped-the-same-cd-300-times

 

 

[gurubuzz]

Slower older drives seem to work better. If they play back ok just record them back in with an aux lead. Start with WAV files then convert to MP3s after any post processing.

You'll have to make sure you are not monitoring the recordings back out of the line out...or use a second PC, phone or laptop to record.. Then just run the files through a simple maximiser before converting to MP3.

 

 

[gurubuzz]

Also the printed side is where most of the damage happens, if you hold them up to the light you can see through where the printed side is scratched through. I always cringed when I saw people put CDs down Artwork down, The printed side is way more susceptible to permanent damage than the shiny side.

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, gurubuzz said:

Slower older drives seem to work better.

 

On 9/1/2021 at 2:06 PM, HenrySalayne said:

@Cringelix

Maybe this will give some insight:
https://john-millikin.com//why-i-ripped-the-same-cd-300-times

 

 

Haha wow... 

 

But yeah, definitely could be a drive issue,  i had "MASH"* cd player once, it would read cds no other player could error free...so yeah,  its an error detection thing. Although if discs are damaged too much, nothing will work i guess...

 

I mean... this cd still plays on my Lenovo laptop,  no errors... (difficult to make a foto... lots of scratches,  but no too deep ones)

 

In its full glory: 

 

 

 

PS: not a 'bootleg' !

Spoiler

 

 

*"The Technics MASH (multistage) decoder uses pulses of 11 different durations to form the output signal."