Hi, hoping for some help here please.
 
I have a CD-R of a friends first band, creating at least 15 years ago! It's been sat in its case unplayed for probably 10+ years, the CD itself is in reasonable condition, no scratches or anything, just the usual played marks. you can clearly see the darker circle of the CD which contains data.
 
When I put it in a CD player or in my PC, it shows that there are 3 tracks, it shows how long each track is and when you push play, the timer counts up as if it's playing, no jumps or anything in the timer, but it's just silent, no sound whatsoever. I have tried it on many systems and each recognise the number and duration of the tracks, each play through in time, but all with no sound.
 
Does it recognise the number and timing of tracks on there due to metadata (or whatever it is) and the songs are lost forever, or is there a way of retrieving the tracks?
 
Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Have you tried just ripping the CD instead of playing it? Are you sure it is an audio CD and not a data CD with some type of digital sound file? Try looking at it with IsoBuster. I think the download functions as a demo and will let you examine the disc but probably will not let you use the full feature set without buying a license. CDRecoveryToolbox is another option.
 
http://www.isobuster.com/download.php
 
http://www.oemailrecovery.com/cd_recovery.html
 

Thanks for the response, when I click into 'Computer' and open the CD, they show as CDA files. I have used CD recovery you recommended but it only found the CDA files also.
 
I'm trying to rip the CD, failing that, I will try ISOBuster.

Ripping didn't work, but ISOBuster definitely found something, but I'm struggling. It found the 3 tracks on there
 
Track 1 - LBA = 0. Size = 42.96MB
Track 2 - LBA = 19,152. Size = 50.20MB
Track 3 - LBA = 41,534. Size = 44.61MB
 
when I extract them though, I get an error - Sector 0 couldn't be read.
 
Might drop them an email

Not good news. The data may be unrecoverable.
 
You can try ripping with Exact Audio Copy. That is a CD ripper that gives you the option to set it to read multiple times if it finds an iffy sector. Sometimes this will enable it to collect enough information to fill in the blanks when a single read fails. It will take a long time if error recovery quality is set to high so maybe something you should run while you sleep.
 
http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
 
 
 
 
 

slartabartfast
Not good news. The data may be unrecoverable.
 
You can try ripping with Exact Audio Copy. That is a CD ripper that gives you the option to set it to read multiple times if it finds an iffy sector. Sometimes this will enable it to collect enough information to fill in the blanks when a single read fails. It will take a long time if error recovery quality is set to high so maybe something you should run while you sleep.
 
http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks again! It does look like the data is gone for good. I used Exact Audio Copy and it spent a couple of hours extracting the 3 tracks. The first one you can hear so slightly, but is mainly crackles, the last 2 are just crackles with the odd drum hit or guitar chord and lots of skipping.
 
Oh well, thanks anyway!