Why does it say "Your Xbox can't recognize this disk."?

Old question, but something any new readers can try

I got a 2002 OG Xbox because I threw a bid on it 24 hours before the eBay auction ended, thinking I would lose it, but at the same time I'd have a good parts unit for the non-married parts if it was beyond repair. Nope, I won the console.

I didn't know the exact year out of the gate, but once I got it, I knew it was a Thompson based on the age and drive tray. It wouldn't read a disc out of the box, but it took a cleaner disc (ignore the color, Epson's 3LCD filtering is weird with nearly pure green):

Once I let it run through its process, this game was run through it, but it had read errors at first (I tried another; see how rough the label is thanks to parental Sharpie treatment, and my failed cleaning attempt:

It took a 2nd copy I had on hand (I'm working on a replacement cover in color) perfectly. Same result when I wiped my "parental ownership dispute" copy down:

It even played solid for a good 30 minutes-1 hour, at least with some old GTA: SA save files I found on the console.

Don't run out and buy one of these discs (the odds of these things working is low, especially on Samsung SDG drives) but if you can get it for less than $20 (I paid $15), it may be worth a try. Consider it "burn money" at that point, since it only fixed for 2 days.