Help please...does anyone know if a cd reads from the middle outward like a record or vice-versa?
457368
Yes it reads inward/outward.  Why so curious??
1055740
If it does it on just one mixed media CD-That CD might be bad. If it does it on all llike this, try to copy the files you want to your My Music folder and play it from there.
273649
I have found this super annoying problem with burning CDs like that. I will burn some files on one computer, take it over to my laptop and it looks blank!! I use ISO Buster to look at the CD and the stuff is there. Well it seems it had to to with Nero and burning multisession disks or something and Windows wasn't reading them correctly. Are you using a different program to burn? If you use Windows media player to burn a CD, it should definitly read..if not try a different brand of disk. If not then...well newegg.com has some nice 16X Dual Layer DVD-RWs for under $40...
842305
Have you tried running a Cleaning CD through your drive - it looks like an ordinary CD with a spiral of tiny brushes on it, some have music tracks to make it play for a few seconds, if it hasn't simply inserting it a couple of times will do the trick.
308738
HAve you properly connected the CD-Rom Audio Cable to your Sound Card and the Back of your CD-Rom Drive. If You won't connect this cable then you won't be able to play Normal Audio CDs. CD-Rom Audio Cables Look LIke http://www.national-tech.com/catalog/cdromcables.htm and Refer this http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000213.htm for proper connection of CD-Rom Audio Cable. \n And if you don't have Cd-Rom Audio cable then you can buy 1 from the market or order online at http://www.national-tech.com/catalog/cdromcables.htm.\n PLEASE TAKE NOTE : Normal Audio  Cds only Play if and only it this cable is properly connect to the Sound Card and rour Cd-Rom Device.
371511
It can depend on where the music is coming from.  If it is from a site that allows music downloads, that should go right to it.  If you've searched for it, and listened to it straight from the site then, while it is playing, go to file and select save media.  If a friend burned a CD for you it will go right there from the CD, when you view what is in the CD.
1023090
One of those old 3.5 disks? With my old computer, my A drive would sometimes give me that error because the disk was not completely pressed down in the slot. I would just push it in slightly until it began reading it. Try that. (I assume that the drive works? Like, it makes noises  as if it's trying to read the floppy. If it is totally quiet you might need to reinstall the drive or its driver by going to the Control Panel).
692447
If your CD hasn't been scratched, your CD ROM is not properly detecting the CD.\nTry with the other CD ROM.
416623
The above answers are good, but they left out the most important part! Your cleaning strokes MUST go from the center of the disk straight out to the outside edge.\n\nNever clean going round-and-round!\n\nThe reason is that the CD contains error-correction code that will allow it to recover from a few errors, but if in your cleaning you leave (or create) a scratch that closely overlays the circular CD track, then there will be too much lost information for the CD player to recover.\n\nWhy start from the center? Because that's where the tracks start, so if you end up leaving a little gunk on the CD, it's better that the mess end up on the outer edge, where there's probably no data (unless you're cleaning a full 72 minute disc, and there aren't many of those).
22060
Relax.  When you open the tray you will see that there is a smaller 'inset' to accommodate the mini-CD.  It will rest inside this recess.  When you eject the disk, it will still be there.  \nWARNING; do not use mini-CDs in frontloading car stereos!
272179
What about the recording software? Does it show you how much space is left on the CD? \n\nMaybe there have been files recorded to the CD and later got deleted. \nIf you delete files from a CD then the space those files occupied stays lost.  \nYou would need to have a CD-RW and would have to format the CD-RW to create new recording space on there to put new stuff on the CD-RW.
116131
The awesome sponging that is ISO when when making 1:1 cd copies.\n\nIt just has a bunch of "empty space"(bytes filled with spacebar characters) and the compression program saves those white spaces in exponential notation rather than packing each useless byte.
1070665
If the CD is at fault, you'd need to send it to a specialty lab, which would cost a couple of hundred dollars.\n\nTry three or four CDs in the same drive. Try the suspect CD in three or four drives. If the drive will not read any CD's, it is at fault. If the suspect CD is not readable in any drive, it is at fault.
969842
Only thing I know is it may be a bad cd-r disk. I've had that problem. If you've tried multiple disks, I don't known what to tell you. Hope this helps!
1150788
How about if it's CD-R. Beyond that I don't know.
859064
Well the first guy isnt to bright, there is no cd+r only cd-r ... you are thinking of blank dvds. But yes if it is old it may not be capable of playing a recorded cd. Make sure you are burning it as an audio cd because unless you have a very new cd player it will not play Windows Media Format, if thats not the case follow these steps.\n\n1) Try a different burning software ... I dont like windows Media Player for burning, I use Nero Burning Rom\n\n2) Try Different Media (A Different brand, some burners dont like certain brands of cds)\n\n3) Check that all the required system files are there, this can be done using Nero Drive Test.\n\n4) Run a drive test to see if it is performing properly (These can normally be downloaded from the manufacturers website) If it fails return it to the store.\n\nI mentioned Nero Burning Rom above, get it from www.nero.com
889347
I can't remember exactly, but it has to do witht the way the laser and disk interact.  It is something like the disk has a mid-line in each track and the image is created on one side or the other of the mid-line.  If you have a CDR+ drive trying to write to a CDR- disk, the information will not be correct because the laser was writing on the "unformatted" side of the track.  Like I said I don't remember exactly, so maybe someone else will be able to expand or clarify on the explaination..