To recover a damaged CD:

dd if=/dev/hdc of =/home/sam/myiso.iso bs=2048 conv=notrunc,noerror

Mount the resulting myfile.iso:

In fstab:

/home/sam/myiso.iso<space>/mnt/myiso<space>iso9660<space>rw,users,noauto <space>0<space>0

at command line, as root:

mkdir /mnt/myiso

mount /mnt/myiso

cd /mnt/myiso

mkdir /home/sam/recover

cp -r<space>*<space>/home/sam/recover

all the files which are whole files will be in /home/sam/recover directory. If this doesn't yield any files the CD toc is wrecked. I don't know what you do when that happens. I hope I never have to find out. I hope this helps.

Cut & Polish

2000 grit to remove deep scratches
3000 grit to smooth
Turtle Wax Polishing Compound Light to Medium