White specks — They’re eating your CD/DVD archive

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FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT By Deanna McElveen Find an old CD or DVD on which you have precious things stored, such as family movies, pictures, or genealogy fi
[See the full post at: White specks — They’re eating your CD/DVD archive]

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cesmart4122, Morris Burgess, SueW, cybercrone, DLivesInTexas, fisher75, dutchjim, lmacri, John18, abbodi86

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I guess it’s been long enough now that it’s actually starting to happen, but people have been talking about “CD Rot” since the mid 1980’s. Trust me, I was in college radio at the time and had to take the angry calls from the CD store advertisers when our engineer was quoted about it in an article in the local alternative weekly.

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Why create an iso rather than just copying all of the files? What is the benefit?

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shadonoz wrote:

Why create an iso rather than just copying all of the files? What is the benefit?

ISO is smaller the full data copy. ISO mounts as drive.

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I’ve had some problems with a couple store bought DVDs not working right, but I never have seen any White Specs.  Never had any problem with DVDs or CDs I burned myself.  Yes, I have looked at some that are 25 plus years old.  I do follow the directions given on the proper care, storage, and handling of same.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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SueW, Microfix

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Charlie wrote:

but I never have seen any White Specs

Perhaps you are wearing them and that’s why you can’t see them?
couldn’t resist charlie 🙂

I still have new and used DVDR’s from way back and used/new CDR’s from the early 2000’s, never seen or witnessed ‘white specks’
Sounds like this could be a number of things like, bad storage location, cold areas, low quality media…
I stuck with mistsubishi and Sony CD/DVD media for most of that era.
They are now surplus to requirements now flashdrives can store far more and external HDD’s.

If debian is good enough for NASA...

3 users thanked author for this post.

Charlie, SueW, shadonoz

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Alex5723 wrote:

shadonoz wrote:

Why create an iso rather than just copying all of the files? What is the benefit?

ISO is smaller the full data copy. ISO mounts as drive.

Can’t be that much smaller, especially if files are already in a compressed format (e.g., jpeg or mp3) can it?  I’ve never experimented to compare.

But storage is so inexpensive now, it would seem to be not worth the inconvenience of not having direct access to the files.

But to each their own, I guess.

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shadonoz wrote:

Can’t be that much smaller, especially if files are already in a compressed format (e.g., jpeg or mp3) can it? I’ve never experimented to compare.

I checked my Windows 10 22H2 Install ISO and all the files in the expanded ISO only use 4.9 MB (4,933,632 bytes) more space than the ISO itself.

So you’re right, there’s not a huge difference, but…

The whole reason ISO images exist is they can be burned directly onto a CD/DVD/USB that a PC can boot without having to take any special steps to make it bootable.

The same can’t be said if all you have is a copy of just the files/folders from the ISO.

And the ability to “boot” the contents of an ISO becomes very important if the existing OS drive on your PC isn’t working and you’re trying to fix whatever’s wrong with it!

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n0ads wrote:

The same can’t be said if all you have is a copy of just the files/folders from the ISO. And the ability to “boot” the contents of an ISO becomes very important if the existing OS drive on your PC isn’t working and you’re trying to fix whatever’s wrong with it!

Not true.  One can mount an ISO, copy the contents to a USB drive, then boot that USB drive.  I don’t use discs.  I use ISO’s for storage on disk (HDD, SSD) only, never to boot from; too slow.  It has been many, many years since I’ve booted a disc.

In addition, if the WindowsRE (Recovery Environment) is properly setup, after three failed boots of the OS, one is automatically booted into the Recovery Environment, which contains the necessary functions to repair a failing OS boot, unless it’s so pooched it needs a restore from a recent drive image.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

1 user thanked author for this post.

Microfix

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bbearren wrote:

I use ISO’s for storage on disk (HDD, SSD) only, never to boot from; too slow.

Absolutely! This is where an external HDD with various iso’s is VERY handy and quick, not only for over-the-top fixes also fresh installs.
Plug’n’Play on the next level.
That reminds me, I need to nuke a few OoS W10 iso’s, thanks.

If debian is good enough for NASA...

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Hi Deanna:

Just wanted to thank you for being a “small-town preachy lady”.

Just what we need to hear.

 

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot."
--Mark Twain

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I’m using a macbook Pro.  Is there an alternative to AnyBurn?  (Hopefully it works similarly.)

Thanks.

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Hi Deanna,

Your added bonus of VU Meter is great BUT one issue… each time you open the .exe file you must go thru the dreaded not a Microsoft app routine. Can this be just opened & run without installing?

 

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I’ve got a Macbook Pro from 2019. Is there a program that I can use in place of AnyBurn? Thanks for the advice.

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