Ripping a Bit-Rotted CD

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I just managed to buy Sega Presents Club Saturn, a Break-beat and D&B (Brum & Bass for those of you who don't know.) Sega Saturn Remix CD that Sega issued in 1997 and unfortunately it seems to have been kept in a bad storage location throughout it's life as it's not beginning to rot at it's center and has a small splotch on the outer rim of the disc.

In the interest of posterity and so that the CD can be heard in the future (It's great by the way) and not just forgotten I'd like to rip it to FLAC or WAV and preserve it as it seems that there is no high quality copy of it floating out there.

So, does anyone know of a surefire way to rip a rotting disc? It still plays the tracks where it's rotting, just with a lot of pops and ticks in the music so I'd like to know if there's a program that can scan that problem area multiple times and hopefully salvage the data.

[Pulsar_t]

Have you tried Exact Audio Copy? Though from the sound of it you'd need to tinker with the physical media itself. http://www.wikihow.com/Fix-a-Scratched-CD

[jfe2]

I didn't know CDs could "rot". Is it due to damp storage or something? That's real interesting. Hopefully you get this ripped properly, it sounds pretty cool!

[Pulsar_t]

It happens..

[Limewater]

So, does anyone know of a surefire way to rip a rotting disc? It still plays the tracks where it's rotting, just with a lot of pops and ticks in the music so I'd like to know if there's a program that can scan that problem area multiple times and hopefully salvage the data.

Before you do too much, I suggest just trying to rip it like normal through Windows Media player or whatever other software you use. Some software will get a better read during a rip than when attempting to just play the disc audio. I know this is true for WMP, and it is likely true for a few others.

I know there is some linux software that comes bundled with Ubuntu that will perform multiple passes trying to read a damaged disc as well. I don't recall what it's called, though.

[Pulsar_t]

So, does anyone know of a surefire way to rip a rotting disc? It still plays the tracks where it's rotting, just with a lot of pops and ticks in the music so I'd like to know if there's a program that can scan that problem area multiple times and hopefully salvage the data.

Before you do too much, I suggest just trying to rip it like normal through Windows Media player or whatever other software you use. Some software will get a better read during a rip than when attempting to just play the disc audio. I know this is true for WMP, and it is likely true for a few others.

I know there is some linux software that comes bundled with Ubuntu that will perform multiple passes trying to read a damaged disc as well. I don't recall what it's called, though.

Yes he should use Linux because EAC doesn't exist

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Have you tried Exact Audio Copy? Though from the sound of it you'd need to tinker with the physical media itself. http://www.wikihow.com/Fix-a-Scratched-CD

Well I can actually see a small splotch on the disc where it's starting to corrode from the rot.

The disc still plays fine just not until tracks 12, 13, and 14 which all have lots of hisses and pops (Track 13 being the worst.) so what I'm wanting to know is if there's a program that can simply scan and re-scan the same three tracks until it recovers all of the data.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I didn't know CDs could "rot". Is it due to damp storage or something? That's real interesting. Hopefully you get this ripped properly, it sounds pretty cool!

It's due to a multitude of factors including storage and errors in the pressing during the manufacturing process.

[Unleaded Logic]

Breaks?! D&B?! With Sega?!

Dude, you have to hook me up with a few of the tracks that work, my ears beg to hear!

[Hobie-wan]

EAC should be a good choice, but I haven't used it myself in quite some time. CDEX is what I use and is also very good. In settings > CD drive settings > ripping method there's a setting called 'Paranoia Full" which is probably comparable to some setting in EAC and either one of those is probably the best you're going to get. But I would try ripping the damaged tracks on every drive you have available to you as different drives are going to react to the errors differently.

And yes, disc rot happens. If the formulation of the plastic is wrong, it can let in oxygen and the aluminum layer oxidizes or even chemicals in the plastic itself can attack the aluminum layer.