About a year ago I wrote a CD with some important data on it, and accidentally forgot to finalize the CD. My hard drive crashed, and had it replaced. However now I want to read the CD but I can't because nothing shows up. I'm sure that there is data there because when I look on the underside of the CD I see the discoloration where it was written on. Is there anything that I can do to read the CD? PLEASE HELP!! :) Thank you

About a year ago I wrote a CD with some important data on it, and accidently forgot to finalize the CD. My hard drive crashed, and had it replaced. However now I want to read the CD but I can't because nothing shows up. I'm sure that there is data there because when I look on the underside of the CD I see the discoloration where it was written on. Is there anything that I can do to read the CD? PLEASE HELP!!! :) Thank youI think this might do something with the software you used to write it. If you used NERO to write it, you might try to add to a multisession cd by trying to add another file or two onto it and then finalize. I don't know if this works with the other burning apps. Also when reinstalling burning software, you should run a 'test' so that the information gets reinstalled, i.e. speed test, read/write test, etc. - again depending on what software you use. Check your manuals and/or help files. Good Luck.
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I didn't use a software program, I just formatted the CD in "My Computer" then I clicked and dragged the data over then forgot to finalize... any ideas of how that can be fixed? Thank you

I didn't use a software program, I just formatted the CD in "My Computer" then I clicked and dragged the data over then forgot to finalize... any ideas of how that can be fixed? Thank youIn that case, please tell us what operating system you are using i.e. WinXPHome, Professional, etc. and what type of PC. There are specialists here that will work with you on that. I don't use any Windows burning features at all. Did you just have all the software transferred to your new HDD or did you have a CD to intstall your operating system? Explain more, and our comp. experts will be glad to help.
So, include as much information as you can.. and good luck.

I didn't use a software program, I just formatted the CD in "My Computer" then I clicked and dragged the data over then forgot to finalize... any ideas of how that can be fixed? Thank you
I assume you did this under Win XP. Was this a CD/R or RW? However, I'm not sure if anything can be done to recover this.

I didn't use a software program, I just formatted the CD in "My Computer" then I clicked and dragged the data over then forgot to finalize... any ideas of how that can be fixed? Thank you
So were you only at the stage where the pop-up bubble says "You have files waiting to be written to the CD"? If that's the case then nothing was written to CD yet and those files were lost with the hard drive crash. Do you remember having actually written the files to the CD using the CD Writing Wizard?

I use windows XP Professional and I have an IBM T-30 ThinkPad. As far as an XP CD goes, IBM doesn't give it to you. They just give you the new hard drive with Windows on it already. So all I had to do was put in the new hard drive and turn it on and it worked. As far as the CD goes, it was CD/R-W. There is no bubble telling me to finalize because it's just the click and drag option. And then finalizing it myself- except I forgot this one time. (Since then I've been using the actual software) I'm not sure what other information you need, but I'd be happy to get it to you! Thanks so much for all your help:)

A couple people have mentioned the software I used... I guess I could specify that more. I would put the blank CD in. Then I go to my computer and right click on the "CD" and click on the "initialize CD" (which is no longer an option with the new updates I've installed) I would then click and drag files to the open CD window. Then I usually to to tools and click "Finalize" but forgot once and it's with the CD that's important. Like I said I can no longer do this- good thing. But I would really like to get that information back! Thank you for all of your help!

XP includes built in burning support (licensed from Roxio). Frankly, I think its not very good. That's why I purchased a full version of Roxio EZ CD Creator. What you were using was the built in software. This software "stages" the files to be copied in a special temp area. But it doesn't actually copy them. So, like Need said, they may never have been copied.

If you strongly believe that there is something on the CD, take it to a technician. If they can recover things from a 'broken' hard drive, they should have a way of extracting data from Cds also. Otherwise I don't know what else to suggest, sorry. Good Luck.