I have three CDs that are supposed to contain pictures, but my only working laptop is pretty old - an Acer TravelMate 2700. It seems to function fine otherwise, but when I insert the CDs, nothing shows up; not even an 'empty folder' message. I'm curious if my laptop might be too old to read these CDs, or if there's something else going on? I can share more details or even a photo if needed!
2 Answers
CDs can definitely degrade over time, affecting how well they read. If they’re older than a few years, that could be a factor. I’ve found that using a USB BluRay drive can sometimes help retrieve data from lightly damaged CDs better than an old CD/DVD drive.
As long as your laptop has a disk reader, it should be able to read CDs. Usually, a computer needs to be older than the 1990s not to handle CDs at all. It could be a format issue with the CDs though. For instance, if it was a CD-RW, it needs to be finalized before a normal drive can read it. Also, old CDs may simply not be readable anymore, or they could be in a special format meant for specific software or devices.
The discs are around 7-12 years old. Do you think that a BluRay drive could help with the finalizing or format issues you mentioned?