Hello,
My home was recently ripped-off. It seems they didn't steal any money or electrical equipment, but what they did, was to destroy my MP3 collection plus some other data cd roms. These cds don't seem to be physically damaged, but the contents are. Most of the cds are Mitsui SG, Teac (Mitsui based) and some Verbatims. I'm positive that these discs weren't damaged before and the fact that this is quality brand makes me wonder how they destroy them. I barely hear music, and all the cd-roms were in perfect condition. What i did was to rescue the mp3's that were saved to the hard disk. Some cd's are ok, but most of them can't be copied to the hard disk, there is an error message, something like crc error, i don't remember exactly. From some cds i can copy some albums and then the error appears. If i skip the track that the error appeared, part of the rest of the cd can be transfered to the hard disk.
I don't know what equipment they used, seems like they have a magnetic tool that discharges cd's?? Can you enlighten me on this???
Do you have any ideas of what could they did to my cds

I suggest lowering the reading speed, using a rescue utility, like CD-Roller and in the worst case using a CD-R recovery company (found in the links pages)

(in reply to nickaram)

Nickaram,

I've never seen a magnet erase a cd, if this was the case, the little theft deterrent devide they put on at the store (that the clerk demagnetizes) would erase your cd! As for your hard-drive or any floppy/zip media, this could very easily be the case. I have seen however, extreme humidity and heat/cold make cd's unplayable, but your cd media is safe near a magnet. As John stated, you may have to weight the cost for a cd recovery company to recover any data you had stored, this will be at an extreme cost also, you'll have to weigh the cost of audio cd's versus the cost of recovery! Good luck!

(in reply to nickaram)

Magnetic fields can't harm cd's
But a UV-light can. But what stupid person would use a black light when breaking in.

(in reply to nickaram)

Are you sure it's not the DRIVE that got damaged?
Do other CD's work ok?

And another baffling question ... - why?
Surely not an extreme RIAA measure against song-swappers?

(in reply to nickaram)

Thank you all for the info!
Matthew, i know that the story sounded paranoid but sad for me it's true. The drive is ok, it's a Plexwriter 12x, works flawlessly since i bought it, 2 years ago. They destroyed over 150 cds plus some other data cds that used to work few months ago. If you want to know WHY..
I'm in deep trouble in my personal life. Some people, probably neighbors had passkeys for years now and they used it to spy me and expose my personal moments on the Internet. They knew that i have spent a lot of time and money to create my mp3 collection which used to be >180gb and besides stealing it, they wanted to piss me off.
As for RIAA..my source for music is not the Internet and i don't sell it. If a friend ask for it though, i'm happy to share it, but this is not so illegal..i mean everyone does it...

(in reply to nickaram)

Hey nickaram
You Say " If a friend ask for it though, i'm happy to share it, but this is not so illegal..i mean everyone does it "

You are wrong !!!
For a start not everyone does it and yes it is Highly Illegal !!!

You Say " It seems they didn't steal any money or electrical equipment, but what they did, was to destroy my MP3 collection plus some other data cd roms."

It makes me wonder what other data you had on the data CD-Roms and I just hope that it is not what my mind first thought when I saw your Post ! It is unbelieveable that someone would break into your home just to damage your MP3 collection it just makes me wonder even more what the Data was although I have got a good Idea from you saying "Some people, probably neighbors had passkeys for years now and they used it to spy me and expose my PERSONAL MOMENTS on the Internet." !!!

So now you have made this Post I will remind you this Forum is Dead Against Piracy and will not tollerate anyone making Illegal Requests to help them with their Piracy but we will give help to anyone who wants to make a Back-up of any CD they have Legally Purchessed and want to use it for their own use and protection !!!

Enough Said !!!

(in reply to nickaram)

Currently,

I have over 12,715 audio cd's. I have the entire collection backed up in the MP3 format. I keep one backup here at home, and one at my mother's house (in case of fire - or theft), or in case someone should break in my house, steal or damage nothing, but wipe out my MP3 collection???

(in reply to nickaram)

Laffin Assassin,
I don't want to get in a flame war with you but i have to reply since you blame me for piracy without knowing me. My English may be rusty but i think that i never mentioned or give the impression that i earned money through this...It was just my hobby..
Ok, let's get on that piracy matter. If it's-as you mention-highly illegal to share your MP3 collection with a friend, can we blame PC users for that mess? Although i haven't extensively researched the topic, and i can understand your loyal thesis as a moderator of the forum, i'll describe my point of view.. I will use MP3Mogul as an example because he has a lot of audio cd's like me. Suppose that he has a close friend as guest on his house:
-"Hey MP3Mogul, i just purchased a MP3 player for my car, can we burn a cd?" Just think about the simplicity of the sentence, this is a common scenario which in fact it daily happens all around the world and don't tell me not.... I can understand that it badly hurts music industry but what can we do about it?
Suppose now that MP3Mogul works in RIAA. Do you think that he would deny to burn that cd to his buddy? I don't think so.. Oh yes, i can see the case from an artist view that they loose money that way but hey...WHO is to blame? Microsoft for windows code which makes the entire process that i describe below a piece of cake, discographic companies for pure copy protection, OR civilians???
Now think about the simplicity of the entire process (the description that i'm referring above): If he has a Plextor 40x he can extract a full 74 minute audio cd in less than 2 and a half minutes. I personally don't use Lame as an encoder, i prefer Nero's Fraunhofer codec. In a fast machine the encoding finishes in few minutes (160kbs, Highest quality) , which also the case for the burning process.
I would like to insist on copy protections. If there was a strong copy protection, i personally wouldn't have the TIME or mood to practice a possible ***** found to bypass that protection. I believe that things won't be so easy with tomorrow's technology in dvd-audio, but for today's chaotic case i think nobody ever expected how simple things would be..

About the people who break-in my house. They didn't do that just once and their first motive wasn't to destroy my cd-roms... Many incidents of the past found an explanation now..They used the passkeys wisely, to spy me, installing spying equipment like webcams, wireless access points, creating passkeys of my car keys (many damages found inside of it :().. things like that... You may wondering WHY? Well, i'm in deep trouble in my personal life and i would like to stop this now and don't get into further details..

(in reply to nickaram)

Hey
Look which ever way you put it Copying any CD that has a Copyright on it and giving it to your Friend is Piracey (Theft) and breaking the Law weither you get cash for it or not and our forum does not tollerate requests for help with Piracey as helping you with this after you have openly admitted to Piracey is the fastest way to get a Forum taken off line and we will not let this happen !!!
And Knowning MP3Mogul's feeling on Piracey are the same as my own I feel sure he would not give anyone a copy of any of his Collection to anyone and he has already explained why he has made backups which anyone with such a vast collection would do !!!
You Say " Well, i'm in deep trouble in my personal life and i would like to stop this now and don't get into further details "
Look I am sorry you are in deep trouble but that is nothing to do with us your private Life is your own concern !!!

(in reply to nickaram)

Right on the money Laffin! I CANNOT CONDONE in any, shape form, or fashion, the piracy of software/data/audio, or what have you. I do not give copies of cd's to my friends, I also do not condone downloading music illegally via the internet. All of my audio cd's are purchased, receipt in the jewel case, I simply make backup copies for my own protection. Enough said!

Nickaram, you said you are not a pirate, if you make (1) ONE, numero uno cd and share it with a friend, you are a pirate! You are helping the cause. I don't like alot of what the RIAA is doing, but I don't fight them by pirating software/audio cd's.

To the subject of people syping on you with webcams, etc, using passkeys, are you working as a spy? This is right out of the movies. There are however, precautions that you cant take (I'm a former FBI academy graduate) you can email me if you need some help on that subject!

(in reply to nickaram)

>Look I am sorry you are in deep trouble but that is nothing to do with us your private Life is your own concern

i had to mention it in order to explain the reasons for the cd-rom disaster.
Look, i don't want to put the forum in troubles, if you feel that my post promotes piracy, feel free to delete it.

(in reply to nickaram)

Hey nickaram
It will not put our Forum in Trouble but it may have done if we had not mentioned that we do not Condone Piracy which includes you giving copies of music away ! And as I say it is Highly Illegal in most Countries of the world including your own Greece !!!
Anyway Enough Said !!!

(in reply to nickaram)

Greece is No10 in piracy (not only for CDs but for various stuff) as we read in a research. Of course that research didn't included Internet piracy, where we should probably last, since we don't have either cable or DSL modems, only 56K and ISDN [:I]

(in reply to nickaram)

Hi John
Most of us in the UK are in the same boat with ADSL ! Hardly anyone over here can have it unless you live in one of our Big Cities thanks to the Greedy BT Telecommunication Company who totaly control our ADSL!!!

(in reply to nickaram)

But here in the good old USA, internet piracy is at an all time high! I get people emailing me all the time (because Of My email name - MP3Mogul) asking me for music files! I don't understand why people can't just go out and BUY their cd's!

(in reply to nickaram)