PC drives are rather harder to clean than standalone home units. One just
removes it from the PC, and starts disassembling until the lens and other
parts are visible. The lens can be cleaned using a cotton swab moistened but
not dripping with window cleaner or pure alcohol. A dry swab should follow
to get any residue. Any visible debris or grunge should be removed from the
sled rail or wormscrew.

Considering the low price of replacement CD-R drives these days, and the
potential extra labor if cleaning doesn't help, I would say that now might
be a good time to consider replacement. You can get a DVD player / CD-RW
drive for under fifty dollars.


Mark Z.

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"Maxwell Smart" wrote in message
.81...
Thanks for the suggestions. What's the best way to go about cleaning a
CD-
RW drive? The CD drive in the 750 mHz PC is at least 3 years old, so it
probably could stand a good cleaning. But my other PC is barely a year
old, so I would expect it to still be in good condition.

I will try and find Exact Audio Copy through Google.

Dan


"Mark D. Zacharias" wrote in
:

Either or both PC drives could have sufficient cleaning / maintenance
issues to account for this, particularly the older 750 mHz model, if
the drive is also older.

You could try Exact Audio Copy and see if it can recover the tracks
you need.

Mark Z.