Gaming PSX game in drive, won't read?

[Doomsday Forte]

I wasn't totally sure where this went, as it could've gone in Computer Systems, PSP, or PS1-2-3's forums, but since this is dealing with my computer as a whole, why not.

Anyway, so in my quest to get some PSX games on my PSP, I've been taking my PSX games to my computer to make the ISO to make the EBOOT file. Right. Now, with a few games I've run into a problem. I put the game in the drive like normal, but when I close the tray, the game disc spins a bit but the drive never really speeds up to start reading it, it keeps making a rhythmic noise, like a clicking heartbeat (since I'm on the laptop, I can actually feel this heartbeat too). It's like it's stuck in limbo and nothing happens. It's only been with certain games and only those. The discs are in pretty perfect condition as far as I can tell, but this confuses me since I haven't had much trouble otherwise with this.

The games it currently affects are Crash Bandicoot Warped, Megaman Legends 1, and Megaman X5.

I could understand if it was a side effect of my current drive's status, but I don't have access to multiple computers. =\

 

[Mewgia]

Sounds like its the drive itself, this used to happen to me on one of my old laptop cd drives. I would always have to try the disk a few times before it would work, if it wasn't working then it would just sit and click. The disks worked fine in other cd/dvd drives.

You should try the disks on another cd drive before going through the process of replacing the drive though, just in case my quick diagnosis is wrong.

 

[deathfisaro]

Unless recent copyright laws made it illegal, I think you're entitled to a back up of stuff you own on optical medias (which includes PSX games).
So I think you can download eboots of the games as a last resort.

You know, I had the same thing happen on my old old old games. Your disc surface may be in good condition but the data stored on the disc may not be.
A good portion of optical media that are over a decade old will go bad.

I think that holds true to retail CDs as well, judging from your experience.

Storing discs in dark cool dry places seem to be the best way to store them.

 

[Doomsday Forte]

All right, I'll try it on another drive (what's sad is that when the laptop came out of the box, it would actually lag the system horrifically upon having a CD/DVD put into the drive, but a firmware thingy fixed that) and hope for the best that way. At least I really only need two folders to transfer across.

And if that fails, then I'll have to try my hand at finding the eboots. Or even the disc images of the game in question. Something like that. I have a bit of a problem with homemade CSOs and some eboots because I like my games completely intact, even if they do take up more disk space. =P