I have a CD that contains only data (photos). It had 5 folders when I tried to record more photos. In the process it should add 6 new folders to the CD directory. It worked finely and I could see the new folders. Then, when I added some new photos all original folders suddenly disappeared with only one remaining. As it's not a rewritable CD I reckon all data must be there, but every time I browse the CD I can only see one of the original folders.
Any help about what happened and how the original data can be retrieved?

See if anything here helps:

How to troubleshoot issues that occur when you write data to a CD-R or CD-RW optical disc in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;324129

Also if you need to retrieve the data perhaps this will help:

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

Originally Posted by jephree

See if anything here helps:

How to troubleshoot issues that occur when you write data to a CD-R or CD-RW optical disc in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;324129

Also if you need to retrieve the data perhaps this will help:

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

I checked the Microsoft page and downloaded PC Inspector. Unfortunately the freeware didn't work. It doesn't show my optical drive in the "Logical Drive" panel but it's there in the "Physical Drive" panel. When I click "Find Logical Drives ..." it searches for more than 6 minutes and then finish without finding any logical drive. For some reason it can't see anything in the faulty CD when this is the optical drive.

Do you have any other idea about recovering data from the CD that was there previously?

With the CD in the drive right click and choose Open.

In the Explorer Window choose Select All then Copy to or Send to your hard drive (My Documents or wherever).

See what comes across.

Originally Posted by jephree

With the CD in the drive right click and choose Open.

In the Explorer Window choose Select All then Copy to or Send to your hard drive (My Documents or wherever).

See what comes across.

It makes a copy of the only one "existing" folder on the CD (at least, the one Explorer can show). Still no trace of the other 4 folders sitting previously on the CD.

With CD in drive right click and choose Properties.

Does the disk space (used/free) match your expectations?

Well, Yes... and No. For a 700MB CD it shows a total capacity of 176MB, being 60.3MB used and 116MB free.
The one folder still available has a total size of 59.8MB, so numbers above make sense. My guess is that the missing folders are within the 524MB (700 - 176 = 524) that "dissapeared".

Is there any way I can attach a word file so I can show you some screen copies?

Attachments can be added from the Post New Reply box. Not the Quick reply.

Here is a search:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=cd...red&hl=en&lr=&

Perhaps you may see a relevant idea there.

Have you tried this CD on another computer?