Locked CD?

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 12:25 am

Hi everyone,

Recently a distant cousin sent me a CD with his branch of the family tree on it. He uses My Heritage family tree software. The first time I popped the CD into my computer, it worked fine. I was able to view all of the things on the CD.

The second time I popped the CD in I got a window giving me all the options for using a blank CD. This is all that I can get now.

I am fully able to access his website which is also My Heritage and can view all of the family tree options available on it just by clicking on the link that he sent me.

Any ideas as to what happened with the CD?

Carol

StewL · Post by **StewL** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:14 am

Hi Carol
Just a thought, is it possible that you are using Windows Vista, and the CD is in XP or older format?
This may be far removed from the reason, but it is just a thought.

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:52 am

Hello Carol,

The CD may have decided to put an end to it all or maybe it’s a CDRW that’s being temperamental. Possibly it was a spare that he had rather than a freshly burnt one and it’s starting to deteriorate.

CDs written in one drive aren’t always compatible with all drives although if it worked once you would think it would keep working. You could try the CD in another drive or try it in another computer. If you can get it to work make a copy.

I used to have a CD that someone sent me and it, or the program, kept asking me to wash the CD even though it looked absolutely spotless. A good wash always worked wonders. You could give it a very quick and gentle wash in slightly warm water with a small amount of detergent, rinse off and wipe dry with paper towel from centre outwards very gently and retry when thoroughly dry. And that's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

If you get the blank CD box try clicking on Take No Action then have a look at the CD in Windows explorer to see if there is anything there.

Hope that works,
Alan

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 2:14 pm

Thanks Stewie and Alan,

No luck so far. I tried washing the CD, but it still says it's blank. I don't have the Take No Action option on my computer and the CD is a CD-R.

I do have Windows Vista, but I think my cousin has an up to date computer also. What I don't understand is why it would work the first time, but not after that. That's why I was wondering if My Heritage has something written into their software that doesn't allow viewing the CD more than once if you don't have their software on your computer. Then again, it never told me that I needed the software either...

Carol

Post by **emanday** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 2:47 am

Hi Carol,

Probably clutching at straws here, but have you tried this?

Open My Computer, right click on the icon for your CD drive, select "Explore" from the drop down menu.

If the contents are intact, you should see them. Select all of them and copy to a folder (make a new one for the purpose).

Good Luck

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 2:55 am

Hi Mary,

Comes up blank as can be!

Still don't have a clue what happened!

Carol

Post by **emanday** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 2:59 am

speleobat2 wrote:the CD is a CD-R.

Are you sure it's not a CD-RW and you've deleted the files? (I'm ducking

)

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 12:36 pm

Hi Mary,

I'm sure. It says CD-R on it and I didn't do anything except pop it in, look at the files, then eject it!

Carol

Post by **emanday** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 2:03 pm

Sorry Carol, but I had to ask

Confession here

I thought I'd copied files from a CD to my hard disc, thought I'd selected the wrong files and deleted the folder.

Yup, I was still on the CD, and it was only later I realised it was an RW