How to recover data from a defective CDROM

[Jonathan Ryshpan]

On Wed, 2009-05-20 at 22:28 -0400, Gene Heskett wrote: 
> On Wednesday 20 May 2009, Jonathan Ryshpan wrote:
> >My computer is no longer able to read a CDROM with some fairly valuable
> >data.  I have been able to read this CDROM successfully in the past.
> >... 
> >An attempt to get some data using cat fails:
> ># cat /dev/sr0
> >cat: /dev/sr0: Input/output error

> Can this drive still read other cd's?  Also, if the cd really is scratched, 
> there are treatments to restore them at your local Wally World I believe.  In 
> a one time pinch, you could use a century old darkroom technique we used for 
> scratched negatives since long before my time, rub a bit of the grease from 
> the side of your nose into the scratch.
> 
> But I'd almost bet a new drive would read it as it is.

The drive does read other CDs without trouble.  It's almost new; I
bought the system in March.  Two other systems, both old but reliable
won't read the CD either.  The CD has no visible scratches; a little
grease didn't help.

Thanks - jon