[Shadow11377]

I'm in the middle of importing all of my CDs and one of them just exploded in my tray as it was spinning up. Holy crap was it loud... I've seen videos of this happening but didn't know how loud it would actually be in person. This CD had a pretty large crack near the center which I'm sure is what caused this to happen, I'm not blaming the drive.

As it wouldn't open with the eject button, I gently pried it open got some of the bits out but it obviously needs more cleaning since it won't close and the stuff I got out isn't enough to make up a whole CD. There is a lot more inside.

Here are some pictures.
http://imgur.com/a/6SvaU#0

How should I clean the rest of this out? Do I open the drive up, or just jiggle it around with the tray open, facing down, and use canned air?
With an exploded CD like this how likely is it that the drive itself is damaged? Should I be concerned?

 

[XanderTheGoober]

Well logically thinking at those high rpms I would just bite the bullet and get a new dvd drive right away. save myself the trouble. Who knows what the cd bits damaged on its blaze of glory to the grave. Shame it was the Godsmack cd though lol.

 

[Blze001]

DVD+-RW drives are ridiculously cheap these days... try disassembling the current one and cleaning it, but I'd probably just spend the $25 for a new one.

 

[TopicClocker]

I would suspect the drive itself to be damaged too after that.

I'd say give it a clean and see if it still works.

 

[Shadow11377]

Quote:

Originally Posted by XanderTheGoober

Well logically thinking at those high rpms I would just bite the bullet and get a new dvd drive right away. save myself the trouble. Who knows what the cd bits damaged on its blaze of glory to the grave. Shame it was the Godsmack cd though lol.

Yeah I've had this CD for like a decade, turns out I actually didn't have it imported to my computer prior to this so I'm out of it for the time being. No big deal.

Looks like everyone is saying it'd be best to get a new drive.
Guess I'll start looking. I'm gonna try and clean it in the meantime and see how that goes. I'm fine importing the rest of my CDs on this if I get it working but I guess it makes sense to get a new one for more important things like an OS install or something that requires reliability.

 

[XanderTheGoober]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow11377

Yeah I've had this CD for like a decade, turns out I actually didn't have it imported to my computer prior to this so I'm out of it for the time being. No big deal.

Looks like everyone is saying it'd be best to get a new drive.
Guess I'll start looking. I'm gonna try and clean it in the meantime and see how that goes. I'm fine importing the rest of my CDs on this if I get it working but I guess it makes sense to get a new one for more important things like an OS install or something that requires reliability.

indeed.

 

[Jayjr1105]

I can see cd/dvd's sitting for serveral years would be dry rotting under the surface becoming a lot more fragile than when they were new. Just rip at a max of 8 or 16x.

BTW newegg frequently has a DVD/RW combo drive on sale for $13.

 

[Shadow11377]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jayjr1105

I can see cd/dvd's sitting for serveral years would be dry rotting under the surface becoming a lot more fragile than when they were new. Just rip at a max of 8 or 16x.

BTW newegg frequently has a DVD/RW combo drive on sale for $13.

Yeah, usually at least one is on sale at any given time.
This is the exact one I bought http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151233 and I got it for $19 about 3.5 years ago.

I've been importing them through iTunes as uncompressed WAVs with the error correction on, but I don't see any options for read speeds.
What program would you recommend? I'm totally fine slowing the imports down a bit but just don't have the option with iTunes.

 

[Jayjr1105]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow11377

Yeah, usually at least one is on sale at any given time.
This is the exact one I bought http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151233 and I got it for $19 about 3.5 years ago.

I've been importing them through iTunes as uncompressed WAVs with the error correction on, but I don't see any options for read speeds.
What program would you recommend? I'm totally fine slowing the imports down a bit but just don't have the option with iTunes.

I know plain windows media player will import mp3's and wav's but not sure it has speed restrictions. With error correction on, it probably just spins (rips) as fast as possible and just make's corrections as needed.

I'd just get a new drive and keep at it as you were. Likely won't happen again.

Edit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106393 $12.99 after code

 

[Shadow11377]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jayjr1105

I know plain windows media player will import mp3's and wav's but not sure it has speed restrictions. With error correction on, it probably just spins (rips) as fast as possible and just make's corrections as needed.

I'd just get a new drive and keep at it as you were. Likely won't happen again.

Edit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106393 $12.99 after code

Yeah, I'm not really that worried about it happening again. If anything I'll put some tape over any cracks on the label side (don't know if that'd even help) in the future but I don't think any of the ones I have left are damaged.

I checked my email for the code on the drive and it gave me EMCWHGP33 for $12.99 but it is expired.

 

[Jayjr1105]

Yep sure enough. Expired yesterday. Silly they're still advertising it. Call and complain and they'll probably give you the discount

 

[Shadow11377]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jayjr1105

Yep sure enough. Expired yesterday. Silly they're still advertising it. Call and complain and they'll probably give you the discount

Think you need to clear your cache or something, not seeing that on my end.

They've got another promo on atm.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204
$17 with EMCAKAT26

 

[computerparts]

Wow that's one of the strangest things I have seen. Talk about bringing in the new year with a bang.

 

[pvt.joker]

Haha.. glad i'm not the only one that's had this happen. In my case the drive was indeed toast after the cd shattered. Here's how mine looked after tearing it apart..

 

[Kittencake]

I had that happen , my poor windows 7 dvd shattered

 

[Shadow11377]

I have since opened it up and cleaned it out.
I saw some damage inside and the spindle also sounds gritty like a bike with sand in it's bearings when I spun it around slowly with my finger.

It still writes and reads CDs and DVDs seemingly fine (haven't checked for errors) so I'll keep this as a drive for unimportant stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pvt.joker

Haha.. glad i'm not the only one that's had this happen. In my case the drive was indeed toast after the cd shattered. Here's how mine looked after tearing it apart..

I knew I forgot something.
Didn't take any pictures of the inside, oh well.

Those little hook type things on the tray were completely blown off so if I ever want to use the drive upright instead of horizontally I'll probably have trouble but luckily I have no plans for that.

 

[wes1099]

This reminds me of when the mythbusters spun cd's/dvd's at 30,000 RPM or something stupid like that on a modified optical drive.