DVD drive problem- won't read specific DVD ROM, readable on other PC

splunge

Distinguished
Feb 16, 2006
130
1
18,685
Hi all!
Odd problem. I have Hallmark Card Studio 2017 on my Win 10 64 bit PC. It was rubbing fine unitl I updated it and then it was acting buggy. On advice of HAllmark, I uninstalled and tried reinstalling.
When I place the disk in the drive it revs for minutes and when trying to access the disk in Windows explorer it runs a long time and either I kill it or I get an error unable to read disk, perhaps corrupt. The disk works fine in my wife's Win 10 laptop and the twin DVD drives reads other CD's and DVD's fine.
Any ideas?
 
Solution
on your pc that having issues reading that disk. make sure the drive firmware is up to date. some firmware on dvd drive fix media reading issues. also make sure your mb chipset drivers are updated to rule out a software issue. one trick if the drive on your pc wont read that disk is do a network install of the software. turn on file sharing and drive sharing on your pc. put the disk in the other pc that works and do a network install of the program.
Try to clean that specific disk and also try to clean the drive with a special cleaning disk.

Each disk is different with each own characteristics. As those disks age they start producing more read errors thus becoming more difficult to read by the drives. Fortunately there are error correction mechanisms in each drive that should take care most of those errors.

On the other hand the optics and the laser diodes inside the DVD drives are also ageing rapidly and they are also very fragile so after a while they may have difficulty reading or writing some specific disks especially if those disks aren't in pristine condition. Eventually the situation will get worse and the drive will fail completely. Usually DVD drives have a lifespan of 2-4 years but that time-frame also depends on how hard they have been used. I've seen drives die in a year. Fortunately those drives are pretty cheap nowadays and replacing them is easy.

So either make a copy of that specific disk in a system that can read it or get a new DVD drive. You can also copy it to a USB flash drive. Good luck.
 

splunge

Distinguished
Feb 16, 2006
130
1
18,685
Thanks Panthas!
No luck on copying to flash drive. 1 file on the disk would not copy- I suspect copy protection. I did copy the exe and it installed on the PC from the flashdrive but there was a DVD game check that prevented the program from running. I DL'd an iso mounting program and made a virtual drive with the exe file but it still failed the DVD test.
I'll try cleaning the optical drives at some point.
 
If that disk comes with copy protection it may be nearly impossible to copy it or make an ISO file that works. Sometimes those copy protections deliberately install bad sectors (errors) on a disk which makes it even more difficult for a DVD drive to read it, especially if that drive and/or disk are in bad condition. In that case I'm afraid that your only option is to get a new drive, or perhaps use another PC/laptop with a drive that can read it, put those 2 systems on the same network and try to access that drive through the network. However keep in mind that same copy protection mechanisms can prevent that network access so it may not work. Good luck.
 
on your pc that having issues reading that disk. make sure the drive firmware is up to date. some firmware on dvd drive fix media reading issues. also make sure your mb chipset drivers are updated to rule out a software issue. one trick if the drive on your pc wont read that disk is do a network install of the software. turn on file sharing and drive sharing on your pc. put the disk in the other pc that works and do a network install of the program.
 
Solution