CD freezes computer

I know you wish answers, but I have more questions.
1. What CD burning software was used to write to this disk?
2. Was the CD formatted ( drag and drop ) or did you go through the burning software to write this disk?
The reason I ask these questions is because it appears that the formatting is not recognized properly on any computer. You do not specificly state that you tried to access this disk from the same computer running the same software. This was a problem, especially with earlier software, whenever you formatted the CD and then used the "drag and drop" method to write to it. Should this be the case, and you are not trying to access this disk from the computer and software that it was written on, try doing this now. You should beable to read it just fine on the originating computer using the original software. ...... The "lock ups" you are experiencing are probably due to the fact that the computer can not recognize the formatting of the disk and it is trying too hard to read the disk, thus using all of the resources to do so.

Hi,
Also try the old "put it in before start up"
trick and use the right click "explore" to view the contents.
Hope this helps.
PS. After opening in "explore" "select All" and send to "Briefcase".

It is a windows 98 SE Machine that burned it and also attempted to open it (unsuccessfully). I used Adaptec Easy-CD Writer 4 to write it. The files were simply dragged and dropped.

i have had similar problems in the past with other CDs using other CDR/CDRW drives but this is the first time the data can not really be replaced and the cd can not be re-written. its the last copy...

The best suggestion is to try and read it with the same CD that burnt it, preferably in the original configuration. I always do a etst read in a different cd after burning a cd as this enables me to check if it is readable elsewhere.

One other possibility. If the cd is a CDR-RW and made on a CDR-RW burner, it may still have an open session, some cds will not read discs with open sessions. If this is the case, placing it in a CDR-RW burner and adding to it with the instruction to close and finalise the cd MAY solve the problem.

This problem occurs when the cd reader is looking for the cd equivalent of an end of file tag and chucks a fit when it cant find it and thus gets in a huff and refuses to read it properly.

BTW If the CD burner settings were not set right when burning you can get some interesting results. My nephew placed a lot of data onto a cd and set it to burn whilst it was still set for burning music, so it burnt as an audio cd, it made some real groovy chipmunk like sounds.