Vista Won't Read CDs

I have a lot of misc. cds that a friend who passed away made. They are pics
& music mostly. Some slide shows too but I can't get them to open anywhere.
I told his wife I'd go through them but impossible if my computer won't read
them. I believe most of them were made on XP and I have Vista. Called
Gateway but they didn't know. I tried a couple on an HP with XP and they all
were read. Does anyone know if this is a Vista problem or is it my computer?
My warranty is up in May so I'm hoping if it's the computer I'll have time
to get it fixed under warranty.

Many Thanks

If CD's were successfuly read on an HP, this would mean that your drive is
faulty.
Recordable CD's (at least some of them) are known to be forgetful and to be
loosing data unexpectedly. I would recommend you to buy a USB hard disk.
They are not too expensive and you can cary them everywhere around. Get
those CD's to those places where you can read them successfuly and copy them
to USB hard drive. A small freeware program may come handy. This is
available at http://www.imgburn.com and can be used to write ISO images of
your CD's to a USB hard drive.


"Carole" <> wrote in message
news:95EEA583-7B80-4F7E-A9EC-...
>I have a lot of misc. cds that a friend who passed away made. They are pics
>& music mostly. Some slide shows too but I can't get them to open anywhere.
>I told his wife I'd go through them but impossible if my computer won't
>read them. I believe most of them were made on XP and I have Vista. Called
>Gateway but they didn't know. I tried a couple on an HP with XP and they
>all were read. Does anyone know if this is a Vista problem or is it my
>computer? My warranty is up in May so I'm hoping if it's the computer I'll
>have time to get it fixed under warranty.
>
> Many Thanks

"measekite" <> wrote in message
news:O9Eol.12701$...
> On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:46:55 -0800, Carole wrote:
>
>> I have a lot of misc. cds that a friend who passed away made. They are
>> pics
>> & music mostly. Some slide shows too but I can't get them to open
>> anywhere.
>> I told his wife I'd go through them but impossible if my computer won't
>> read
>> them. I believe most of them were made on XP and I have Vista. Called
>> Gateway but they didn't know. I tried a couple on an HP with XP and they
>> all
>> were read. Does anyone know if this is a Vista problem or is it my
>> computer?
>> My warranty is up in May so I'm hoping if it's the computer I'll have
>> time
>> to get it fixed under warranty.
>>
>> Many Thanks
>
> Download a LivdCD of either Ubuntu Linux or fedora Linux. Install by dual
> boot. Now if these are MP3 files you will need to download and install
> codec that can handle mp3. It is all free. All of the software for Linux
> is free forever. It runs better, is more secure, and you will have a
> better experience.

There has to be an easier and subjective way to remedy the situation.
After all, we are in a 'Vista' group.

Harry.

"measekite" <> wrote in message
news:O9Eol.12701$...
> On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:46:55 -0800, Carole wrote:
>
>> I have a lot of misc. cds that a friend who passed away made. They are
>> pics
>> & music mostly. Some slide shows too but I can't get them to open
>> anywhere.
>> I told his wife I'd go through them but impossible if my computer won't
>> read
>> them. I believe most of them were made on XP and I have Vista. Called
>> Gateway but they didn't know. I tried a couple on an HP with XP and they
>> all
>> were read. Does anyone know if this is a Vista problem or is it my
>> computer?
>> My warranty is up in May so I'm hoping if it's the computer I'll have
>> time
>> to get it fixed under warranty.
>>
>> Many Thanks
>
> Download a LivdCD of either Ubuntu Linux or fedora Linux. Install by dual
> boot. Now if these are MP3 files you will need to download and install
> codec that can handle mp3. It is all free. All of the software for Linux
> is free forever. It runs better, is more secure, and you will have a
> better experience.

Hey dipshit, did you even read the post? He doesn't need to complicate
life by installing an inferior product. Linux/Ubuntu is FREE and NOBODY
wants it. What a ****ed up response.

"Dusko Savatovic" <> wrote:

>Recordable CD's (at least some of them) are known to be forgetful and to be
>loosing data unexpectedly.

Oh, MAN! There's nothing more annoying than having loose data.

"Ray Luca" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "Dusko Savatovic" <> wrote:
>
>>Recordable CD's (at least some of them) are known to be forgetful and to
>>be
>>loosing data unexpectedly.
>
> Oh, MAN! There's nothing more annoying than having loose data.

Unless it's a loose wife!

It would really be useful if you would tell us the file suffixes. IE
filename.mov or whatever.
Slide shows usually require a compatable viewer. The suffix can give an idea
of what might be appropriate.
Music and video files as well as picture files have several different
formats. A free viewer that will display most picture formats (and some
others as well) is IrfanViewer. (Freeware, downloadable)
Vista does not include some of the codecs that were in XP. There are
various downloadable codecs and players that more or less make up the
difference. Again, the file suffix will determine what is appropriate.


"Carole" <> wrote in message
news:95EEA583-7B80-4F7E-A9EC-...
>I have a lot of misc. cds that a friend who passed away made. They are pics
>& music mostly. Some slide shows too but I can't get them to open anywhere.
>I told his wife I'd go through them but impossible if my computer won't
>read them. I believe most of them were made on XP and I have Vista. Called
>Gateway but they didn't know. I tried a couple on an HP with XP and they
>all were read. Does anyone know if this is a Vista problem or is it my
>computer? My warranty is up in May so I'm hoping if it's the computer I'll
>have time to get it fixed under warranty.
>
> Many Thanks

XP or Vista shouldn't matter, it's a question of having the necessary CODECs
and filters to open the files and most of those are from 3rd parties.

VLC (VideoLan), a freeware video player that will play almost any video file
without requiring you to install extra CODECs.

IrfanView, a freeware image (and other filetypes) viewer that will display
almost any type of image file.

If neither of these can see or open the files on those discs then you might
have a hardware problem. Optical drives (and floppies) can drift out of
alignment over time so it might just be that either yours or the drive the
discs were created on is misaligned to the extent that your computer cannot
read those discs while a different computer can still access the files on
them.

"Carole" <> wrote in message
news:95EEA583-7B80-4F7E-A9EC-...
> I have a lot of misc. cds that a friend who passed away made. They are
> pics & music mostly. Some slide shows too but I can't get them to open
> anywhere. I told his wife I'd go through them but impossible if my
> computer won't read them. I believe most of them were made on XP and I
> have Vista. Called Gateway but they didn't know. I tried a couple on an HP
> with XP and they all were read. Does anyone know if this is a Vista
> problem or is it my computer? My warranty is up in May so I'm hoping if
> it's the computer I'll have time to get it fixed under warranty.
>
> Many Thanks

If they open on one machine and not another, there are several
possiblilties.
1) The Vista machine does not have the proper software for the file types.
What are the file types? (wav, jpg, gif, mp3, mpeg)
Put the CD in the drive, open Computer, right click and explore the CD
drive. If the files are visible, look at the extension type (you may need to
change the folder>view settings and uncheck 'hide extensions for known file
types')
Once you know the file type, you can search Google (or any search engine of
your choice) to find a program to view them.

2) The CD read head in the Vista machine is dirty or damaged. Do other CDs
work in that drive?
If not, you can get the CD drive replaced under warranty and/or get an
external USB drive to read them.


"Carole" <> wrote in message
news:95EEA583-7B80-4F7E-A9EC-...
>I have a lot of misc. cds that a friend who passed away made. They are pics
>& music mostly. Some slide shows too but I can't get them to open anywhere.
>I told his wife I'd go through them but impossible if my computer won't
>read them. I believe most of them were made on XP and I have Vista. Called
>Gateway but they didn't know. I tried a couple on an HP with XP and they
>all were read. Does anyone know if this is a Vista problem or is it my
>computer? My warranty is up in May so I'm hoping if it's the computer I'll
>have time to get it fixed under warranty.
>
> Many Thanks

"measekite" <> wrote in message
news:O9Eol.12701$...
> On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:46:55 -0800, Carole wrote:
>
>> I have a lot of misc. cds that a friend who passed away made. They are
>> pics
>> & music mostly. Some slide shows too but I can't get them to open
>> anywhere.
>> I told his wife I'd go through them but impossible if my computer won't
>> read
>> them. I believe most of them were made on XP and I have Vista. Called
>> Gateway but they didn't know. I tried a couple on an HP with XP and they
>> all
>> were read. Does anyone know if this is a Vista problem or is it my
>> computer?
>> My warranty is up in May so I'm hoping if it's the computer I'll have
>> time
>> to get it fixed under warranty.
>>
>> Many Thanks
>
> Download a LivdCD of either Ubuntu Linux or fedora Linux. Install by dual
> boot. Now if these are MP3 files you will need to download and install
> codec that can handle mp3. It is all free. All of the software for Linux
> is free forever. It runs better, is more secure, and you will have a
> better experience.

Oh gosh, I'm clueless here. I don't even know what a dual boot is. I can
tell you that I have both MP3s & MVA in my media center that work just fine.
These cds might be a mix of pics & music. I'm just not sure.

I got just one of the cds to open. It was all pics of his family but I
didn't get a pop up the way I did in XP asking me which program I wanted to
use. I just stuck the cd in & opened my media center & the pics were there.
I'm completely confused.