What has changed using Catalina w a CD Drive?

[blackxacto]

A few months back I copied the contents of multiple CD's I HAD MADE previously filled with images & documents copied from original image CDs, onto an external HD, connected to my Mojave iMac. Tonite I have tried to pull images from these same CDs on my newer iMac w Catalina. Half of the personally made CDs do not show up in finder.

These same CDs I made which I copied directly, completely, to the external HD, now, maybe half of the CDs are not recognized by the same CD drive and Catalina. All CDs have been kept inside my home covered in a dry cool temperature.

Does a CD Drive get dirty somehow? If half of the CDs are not showing, is some driver needed for Catalina? But half are read, so I don't know what has changed. I have kept the CDs safely stored & dry.

What changed?

 

[Ruggy]

To answer your question about the drive getting dirty, yes the laser lenses do but I don't see it would be your problem here.
You can buy a cleaning CD and see if that helps.
Do the CDs need cleaning? Car wax works well.
For future, something like SD cards are so big, cheap and reliable. Something like about $6 for 8Gb ( haven't checked fir a while)
A card reader for a few dollars more are way faster and more convenient for documents.

 

[MacGizmo]

CDs and DVDs are notorious for going bad spontaneously. I wouldn't be surprised if your CDs have gone bad.

I had numerous CDs go bad over the years (probably 75% or more). The odd thing is, the ones that went bad would work in one machine, but no others. Then the next day it wouldn't work in the machine that worked the previous day and worked in one of the ones that it didn't the previous day. The point is, they go bad with no warning and no reason.

As Ruggy recommended, you're better off using cheap SD cards, or external USB drives for backup/storage.

 

[Thirio2]

I was under the impression that SD cards have a limited life and are not the best for archival storage. I don't remember where I read this. That said, I do keep images on SD cards, but I also download them to a laptop which is backed up by Time Machine on my network and to a separate spinning hard drive.

 

[Fishrrman]

I keep seeing reports about CD/DVD drives no longer working right with Catalina.
I suspect that the root of the problem is "something other than" dirty drive lenses, etc.
Rather, I sense it's something to do with how Catalina "recognizes" devices connected via USB (as many DVD/CD drives are). Not sure what.