a method and an apparatus for reading information from a rotating storage medium allows data to be reliably read at high speeds provided the medium meets design specifications . when the rotating storage medium includes significant imperfections which affect the medium &# 39 ; s center of mass or otherwise affect its ability to rotate at very high speeds without significant vibration and wobble , the method and apparatus of the present invention allow the imperfect storage medium to be reliably read by at a lower speed . the preferred embodiment of the method detects read errors using the ecc information encoded into the information stored on the rotating storage medium . the method alters the speed the medium in response to the detected read errors . apparatus is presented which is used to perform the method . the inventive techniques are especially applicable to cd - rom and dvd technology .