Deffective CD hanging Windows Explorer

I've seen this happen quite often whenever Windows Explorer attempts to read a defective CD. No matter what version: win9x, win2000 or winxp.

My question is quite straightforward:

Why does it hang if it's supposed to be a simple error to handle?
If the CD is totally unreadable, it's ok. But if the CD is deffective but its files are listed and I attempt to open one of them, Explorer behaves erratically.

Opinions are welcome.

Happens all the time I guess Windows is just very stubborn. I guess it's really the drives fault too. If the drive had better error correction and firmware to read better this wouldn't happen I guess.

Poor Programming.... Explorer could have a time out period... but instead, it just crashes AGAIN!
Autoplay HA!.... Just a PITA! AND SLLLLOOOOOOWWWWWW