Any way to recover data from a CD that won't mount?

[AVR2]

I've been asked to try and recover music (which can't be sourced elsewhere) from a CD-R that's badly scratched and even has holes in the data layer. It actually plays in a regular CD player, but doesn't want to mount on either my Mac or my Windows laptop.

Or rather, it flat-out won't mount under Windows, but occasionally OSX will allow it mount but when it does, it only sees it as a blank disc and asks me what I want to do with it.

Is there anything I can do under OSX to access the data?

I realise that I could make a recording from the analogue audio outputs of a CD player, but I'd have to borrow one first - the only CD player we have these days is in a cheapie plastic CD/radio combo, and it doesn't have any kind of audio line output.

 

[cmaier]

I've been asked to try and recover music (which can't be sourced elsewhere) from a CD-R that's badly scratched and even has holes in the data layer. It actually plays in a regular CD player, but doesn't want to mount on either my Mac or my Windows laptop.

Or rather, it flat-out won't mount under Windows, but occasionally OSX will allow it mount but when it does, it only sees it as a blank disc and asks me what I want to do with it.

Is there anything I can do under OSX to access the data?

I realise that I could make a recording from the analogue audio outputs of a CD player, but I'd have to borrow one first - the only CD player we have these days is in a cheapie plastic CD/radio combo, and it doesn't have any kind of audio line output.

There isn’t too much you can do. As you noted, the most practical suggestion is to record from a regular CD player (some even have digital outputs). Absent that, there are services that can try to recover the data, but the cost would be prohibitive if it’s just music.

 

[Moriend87]

Is it lost tapes from 2pac?

 

[Fishrrman]

"I realise that I could make a recording from the analogue audio outputs of a CD player, but I'd have to borrow one first - the only CD player we have these days is in a cheapie plastic CD/radio combo, and it doesn't have any kind of audio line output."

This looks to be "the answer".
Sometimes, the "only way" is to do what you have to do.

 

[jagan]

Try a Windows desktop-drive if you can find one.
They can be less "picky" reading scratched discs.