A program to read win95 CDs?

I hope this is not off-topic.

I have a multi-language word processor that I think I bought
new-old-stock at a hamfest 10 years ago. It may have been 10 years old
then! But it looked like new.

At any rate, it says Windows 95 on the box**.

Now I need it. When I went looking for it I feared it would be on
floppies but it's on a CD. Whew! I kept installing a floppy drive in
every computer long after everyone stopped, but my only working
computers now don't have one or room for one. I thought I was going to
have to go a computer shop to get it converted.

But when I put it in the drive, the drive light blinks for a while and
stops. Then when I click on it in a file manager, the drive opens and
it says "Insert CD in drive".

Is there a program that will read this?

I don't really expect it to run well, but I'm surprised I can't read
the directory.

I'm using 64-bit windows 10. Would I have better luck with some 32-bit
OS?


One google post suggested running in admin mode, and compatability mode,
but if the door of the drive opens up just by selecting the CD, how can
I do that? I tried HxD and the drive opened. I tried it in
compatibility mode for win95 and the program didnt' even open.

I should have tried a file manager instead of an editor. I have six, 3
are 64-bit and can see all the files; 3 are 32-bit and can't see the
HOSTS file for example, but I forget which are which. :-) But until I
find my notes on that, I thought you guys might know the answers!



** and on the side of the box it says it runs on windows 3.1 and higher.
I guess they are wrong about part of that. Says it needs a 386 or higher
and 4MB ram. Installs in 4-9 MB.

Wow, I googled it and it's 23 to 29 years old. But it looks like new!

On Fri, 11 Aug 2017 23:38:54 -0400, micky
wrote:


But when I put it in the drive, the drive light blinks for a while and
stops. Then when I click on it in a file manager, the drive opens and
it says "Insert CD in drive".

Is there a program that will read this?

File format for the DVD hasn't changed.

Try it in several other DVD drives, and if still no
luck, it's probably due to bit rot, and is toast.

wrote in :

On Fri, 11 Aug 2017 23:38:54 -0400, micky
wrote:


But when I put it in the drive, the drive light blinks for a while and
stops. Then when I click on it in a file manager, the drive opens and
it says "Insert CD in drive".

Is there a program that will read this?

File format for the DVD hasn't changed.

Try it in several other DVD drives, and if still no
luck, it's probably due to bit rot, and is toast.


I agree. Contrary to most popular opinion, Commercially produced product
CDs do not last forever. After twenty some years the dye layer has probably
deteriated enough that the drive can not read the physical platter ID to
determine what kind of CD it is. You can try it on another drive, but I'm
pretty sure you are going to be SOL. Sorry.

If you really need a word processing program, both Open Office and Libre
Office are Word clones and work quite well. I stopped using Word about four
years ago, and get by quite well.

Tim wrote:

Contrary to most popular opinion, Commercially produced product
CDs do not last forever. After twenty some years the dye layer has probably
deteriated enough that the drive can not read the physical platter ID to
determine what kind of CD it is.

Commercially-produced discs don't have a dye layer. They are *pressed*
and have physical pits in them. Just like old vinyl records, there are
glass master discs used to press the copies. It is the consumer-grade
discs using burners that alter a dye to emulate a pit.

Commercial-grade discs are pressed. They don't use laser effected dye
phase change.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc#Manufacture

micky wrote:
I hope this is not off-topic.

I have a multi-language word processor that I think I bought
new-old-stock at a hamfest 10 years ago. It may have been 10 years old
then! But it looked like new.

At any rate, it says Windows 95 on the box**.

Now I need it. When I went looking for it I feared it would be on
floppies but it's on a CD. Whew! I kept installing a floppy drive in
every computer long after everyone stopped, but my only working
computers now don't have one or room for one. I thought I was going to
have to go a computer shop to get it converted.

But when I put it in the drive, the drive light blinks for a while and
stops. Then when I click on it in a file manager, the drive opens and
it says "Insert CD in drive".

Is there a program that will read this?

I don't really expect it to run well, but I'm surprised I can't read
the directory.

I'm using 64-bit windows 10. Would I have better luck with some 32-bit
OS?


One google post suggested running in admin mode, and compatability mode,
but if the door of the drive opens up just by selecting the CD, how can
I do that? I tried HxD and the drive opened. I tried it in
compatibility mode for win95 and the program didnt' even open.

I should have tried a file manager instead of an editor. I have six, 3
are 64-bit and can see all the files; 3 are 32-bit and can't see the
HOSTS file for example, but I forget which are which. :-) But until I
find my notes on that, I thought you guys might know the answers!



** and on the side of the box it says it runs on windows 3.1 and higher.
I guess they are wrong about part of that. Says it needs a 386 or higher
and 4MB ram. Installs in 4-9 MB.

Wow, I googled it and it's 23 to 29 years old. But it looks like new!

I tested a bunch of pressed CDs (aluminum colored), and
one is 24 years old and works fine. All of them were
readable without a problem.

I wonder if the color of the disc is actually dye based,
and it's a burned disc. If the quantity of discs to be
shipped is too low, it makes financial sense for them
to burn DVDs. Pressing used to require maybe 10,000 discs to
make it worthwhile.

The first generation of CD drives, could only read pressed
discs. The laser wasn't strong enough to read dye based
discs. Later, CDRW drives could read and write everything
in the CD domain, so you no longer had troubles with
dye based discs. (You cannot write a pressed CDROM
of course.)

I have two or three of the crappy drives, and it's really
annoying to have to worry about "no dye discs for this
machine". It's one reason I have an optical drive
in a USB enclosure, to plug into machines that are
tone-deaf.

Another thing I discovered, is a 1999 era motherboard,
doesn't know how to operate an IDE DVD drive. It wouldn't
boot, and really, it didn't even get as far as reading
anything. So it's not an El Torito disk emulation
problem - and something more fundamental than that
was involved.

Paul

On Sat, 12 Aug 2017 05:11:03 -0400, Paul
wrote:


I tested a bunch of pressed CDs (aluminum colored), and
one is 24 years old and works fine. All of them were
readable without a problem.

THAT will be dependant on how they have been stored.

I have some that age that are fine, others that are useless.

In article ,
(micky) wrote:

I'm using 64-bit windows 10. Would I have better luck with some
32-bit OS?

Even if you can get at the contents of the disk, it's possible that it uses a
16-bit installer even if the rest of the program is 32-bit. If that is the case a
64-bit OS won't run the installer.
--
Regards
John ) Remove the obvious to reply...

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 12 Aug 2017 00:06:17 -0500,
VanguardLH wrote:

Tim wrote:

Contrary to most popular opinion, Commercially produced product
CDs do not last forever. After twenty some years the dye layer has probably
deteriated enough that the drive can not read the physical platter ID to
determine what kind of CD it is.

Commercially-produced discs don't have a dye layer. They are *pressed*
and have physical pits in them. Just like old vinyl records, there are
glass master discs used to press the copies. It is the consumer-grade
discs using burners that alter a dye to emulate a pit.

Commercial-grade discs are pressed. They don't use laser effected dye
phase change.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc#Manufacture

I'm going to try to find other older computers to read it, and copy to a
flash drive. I have a netbook with XP and maybe it will run on that,
though one web article thought something of its age was 8 bit.

If this doesn't work and Starter Word isn't working right, and
LibreOffice is causing other problems, I'll have to spend $150 for a
real multilanguage word processor.

On 12/8/2017 11:38 AM, micky wrote:

But when I put it in the drive, the drive light blinks for a while and
stops. Then when I click on it in a file manager, the drive opens and
it says "Insert CD in drive".

Is there a program that will read this?

Is the CD/DVD a famous brand like Ricoh??

--
@~@ Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch! Live long and prosper!!
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty!
/( _ )\ May the Force and farces be with you!
^ ^ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.39.3
�借貸! ��騙! ��交! �打交! �打劫! �自殺! 請考慮綜� (CSSA):
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On 12/8/2017 5:38 PM, wrote:

THAT will be dependant on how they have been stored.
I have some that age that are fine, others that are useless.

If they were Ricoh CD-R, they should be fine?

--
@~@ Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch! Live long and prosper!!
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty!
/( _ )\ May the Force and farces be with you!
^ ^ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.39.3
�借貸! ��騙! ��交! �打交! �打劫! �自殺! 請考慮綜� (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_...sub_addressesa

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 12 Aug 2017 12:19 +0100 (BST),
(John K.Eason) wrote:

In article ,
(micky) wrote:

I'm using 64-bit windows 10. Would I have better luck with some
32-bit OS?

Even if you can get at the contents of the disk, it's possible that it uses a
16-bit installer even if the rest of the program is 32-bit. If that is the case a
64-bit OS won't run the installer.

Thanks for the warning. If I can read it, maybe it will run on my XP
netbook. Unfortunately it has no CD drive, but I just remembered that
when I bought it on ebay, the guy included an external CD drive and
external 3 1/2 floppy. Now I just have to find them.

If that works, or if it does n't, I plan to post back, but it may take
months to find them.

I still have a computer that iirc runs win3.1, and a monitor to go with
it -- they're buried under other stuff -- but it doesn't have a CD
drive, and it doesn't have USB so I can't plug in the external CD drive.
Maybe I can read the CD somewhere else and copy it to a 3 or 5" floppy,
whatever that computer has, and maybe the program would run on that
computer, but it has so many other limitations, it wouldn't be worth it.

My plans to be a great foreign language writer are fading away. Maybe
I'll be a great English writer instead.

micky wrote:

I'm going to try to find other older computers to read it, and copy to a
flash drive. I have a netbook with XP and maybe it will run on that,
though one web article thought something of its age was 8 bit.

If this doesn't work and Starter Word isn't working right, and
LibreOffice is causing other problems, I'll have to spend $150 for a
real multilanguage word processor.

Is there a reason why you are keeping "multi-language word processor" a
secret? The program really doesn't have a product title?

You never mention the filetype for the doc files that the unidentified
word processor created. How do you know that no newer program supports
that old doc format? You never did identify your word processor
requirements. There are plenty of free ones and some very cheap ones,
like:

- LibreOffice
- Kingsoft's WPS Office (1)
- Softmaker's FreeOffice (freeware version of their $100 Office) (2)
- Essential PIM (Personal Information Manager); similar to MS Office but
with a much better notes feature. (3)
- Calligra Suite; https://www.calligra.org/ (5)
- Polaris Office; https://www.polarisoffice.com/. (5)
- Microsoft's online Word, Excel (free); https://onedrive.live.com. (4)

(1) At one time, they changed this into adware but I think they backed
off that stupidity. Can use ribbon or non-ribbon toolbar style.
(2) User reported to me that Kingsoft is missing some functions
available in Softmaker.
(3) Freeware version is limited to 2 e-mail accounts and, as I recall,
watermarks the docs and e-mails. Costs $40 to eliminate the spam.
(4) Accessed using a web browser. Need a Microsoft account.
(5) No personal knowledge of these products.

Ask in the alt.comp.freeware newsgroup and you'll get lots of
recommendations for free word processors.

me wrote:

Paul wrote:

I tested a bunch of pressed CDs (aluminum colored), and one is 24
years old and works fine. All of them were readable without a
problem.

THAT will be dependant on how they have been stored. I have some that
age that are fine, others that are useless.

There are archival-quality burnable discs. Most users don't pay the
extra for them. Also, do NOT burn at their max burn rate, especially
since older drives may not support the higher speeds. Use labels. Do
NOT mark archival discs with Sharpies or other markers.

On 12-8-2017 5:38, micky wrote:
I hope this is not off-topic.

I have a multi-language word processor that I think I bought
new-old-stock at a hamfest 10 years ago. It may have been 10 years old
then! But it looked like new.

At any rate, it says Windows 95 on the box**.

Now I need it. When I went looking for it I feared it would be on
floppies but it's on a CD. Whew! I kept installing a floppy drive in
every computer long after everyone stopped, but my only working
computers now don't have one or room for one. I thought I was going to
have to go a computer shop to get it converted.

But when I put it in the drive, the drive light blinks for a while and
stops. Then when I click on it in a file manager, the drive opens and
it says "Insert CD in drive".

Is there a program that will read this?

I don't really expect it to run well, but I'm surprised I can't read
the directory.

I'm using 64-bit windows 10. Would I have better luck with some 32-bit
OS?


One google post suggested running in admin mode, and compatability mode,
but if the door of the drive opens up just by selecting the CD, how can
I do that? I tried HxD and the drive opened. I tried it in
compatibility mode for win95 and the program didnt' even open.

I should have tried a file manager instead of an editor. I have six, 3
are 64-bit and can see all the files; 3 are 32-bit and can't see the
HOSTS file for example, but I forget which are which. :-) But until I
find my notes on that, I thought you guys might know the answers!



** and on the side of the box it says it runs on windows 3.1 and higher.
I guess they are wrong about part of that. Says it needs a 386 or higher
and 4MB ram. Installs in 4-9 MB.

Wow, I googled it and it's 23 to 29 years old. But it looks like new!

Boot from a win95(or 98)install floppy, and try the CD.

On Sat, 12 Aug 2017 14:49:22 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

me wrote:

Paul wrote:

I tested a bunch of pressed CDs (aluminum colored), and one is 24
years old and works fine. All of them were readable without a
problem.

THAT will be dependant on how they have been stored. I have some that
age that are fine, others that are useless.

There are archival-quality burnable discs. Most users don't pay the
extra for them. Also, do NOT burn at their max burn rate, especially
since older drives may not support the higher speeds. Use labels. Do
NOT mark archival discs with Sharpies or other markers.

It's probably 10+ years since I've messed with CDs and DVDs, but back
then the advice was to always label your discs with a marker, never with
a label. Labels tended to unbalance the disc, making it harder to read,
especially at higher speeds, and labels had the risk of coming off, thus
destroying the inside of the drive.

Funny how advice changes over time, but it does.