2. misc-audio
  3. 140075-2280

Is There a fix for CD Pin-holes (CD Rot)

I have several early CD's (1984 to 86) with pinholes and some pitting on the label side. Mostly German pressings, many made by PDO. They all have played fine until I bought some early discs with the silver mould area. Pinholes in the center ring cause disks to spin loudly in the transport and sometimes cause read errors.

I've read about the deterioration of CD's; haven't seen any with discolouration (CD rot). Is there anyway to preserve the many CD's in my collection so that discs will continue to play?
And please don't suggest that I give up and burn the discs to a server. I like the physical medium and many of my discs are collectables.

 

lowrider57

Showing 7 responses by djones51

djones51
4,947 posts
 
 CloneCD it makes exact 1:1 copies but you will need to find a windows computer. I used it years ago then it was pulled because of EU copyright but it can be bought again.  It has a free trial period. 
djones51
4,947 posts
 
I am not very familiar with Mac but what it seems what you want to do is Clone the CD , not sure if there is any software for Mac that can do it. Using CloneCD is very easy, insert CD to be cloned it makes an image of the CD then insert blank CD and it writes the exact image that's it.  It doesn"t do one track converting to something then you burn that it does the whole CD as one image. Instead of looking for burning programs see if there is a program that will clone with a Mac. 
djones51
4,947 posts
 
Since you have a lot of stuff from other countries you will need to make sure the program isn't inhibited by Digital Rights Management restrictions. Might not matter but something to be aware of. 
djones51
4,947 posts
 
You were trying to get as close to the  original as possible and cloning is the only way I know, there could be better ways I am no expert.  Might get some ideas from one of the computer forums.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
That's not the problem. Some software will not clone CD's that have certain region restrictions on them. I doubt it would be a problem with your audio CD's just something to be aware of if you can find  cloning software. 
djones51
4,947 posts
 
DRM was used on some CD's back in the 90's, perhaps up to 2003? Sony mostly and it isn't used anymore on CD's, of course iTunes still uses DRM.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
If I am ripping my music to a hard drive I use dbpoweramp but when I want an exact copy of a CD I clone them. I also clone my hard drives as a backup. 
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