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Scratch CD's

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Xeniczone:
Ok, Here is my story.

I was on my gameing computer I was playing battlefeild 2 I was already mad because my team was losing. When my bro. came up and said the game wouldn't work I went into the other room, looked at the screen it said "Please put in a Playstation or Playstation 2 format disk."      I thought he put the disk in backwards again so I ejected the disk and it was in right. I looked at the bottom at the disk and the thing was scratched like crazy!!! there was so many scratches on the bottom you couldn't measure a 1cm difference between them. Pissed off I asked what had happened and who is going to give me the 50 bucks for the disk.

Anyway I started learning that I started looking up on the internet how to fix them I have seen the Disk Doctor and it was 40 bucks i would perfer a new disk. But is there a cheaper way that works !!!NOT TOOTHPASTE IT JUST MAKES IT WORST!!! I start pulling out cleaning solution and consintrated asid on cd-r i scratched on purpose to see what would work.

Bottom line:
How to fix a scratch cd CHEAP?

H_TeXMeX_H:
Most of the stuff I've tried failed :( Only real way is to prevent scratching ... assuming that is possible. I once saw these protective transparent sieves that would attach to the disk and being transparent the laser could read through the film ... they were rather expensive though ... do they exist ... was I dreaming ... I'm not sure anymore ... I don't know what's real anymore !!!

toadlife:
Scratched CDs can be fixed if you are willing to put in a significant amount of work on it.
 
 First the ingredients:
 
 1 Scratched CD
 2 Soft cotton cloths - preferably the type you would use for waxing a car
 1 Rotary Polisher (optional)
 1 bottle of car polish (not WAX, polish)
 1 pack of fine sandpaper - 600 grit
 
 Now, the instructions:
 
 Take your CD and clean it thoroughly with soap and warm water. Don;'t worry. Soap and water will not damage it. Every day Dish-Soap will do just fine. Don't use solvents. Solvents will destroy the CD
 
 Once the CD is clean, grab your 600 grit sandpaper and wet sand the data surface of the CD until it's completely dull. It's very important that you wet sand the CD. Dry sanding it will create a surface that is too rough and permanently damage your CD. if you've never wet-sanded anything don't worry - it's not hard. Just soak the sandpaper in water frequently and/or sand the CD while running it under your faucet. Sand it lightly and try and sand the entire surface evenly. When you are done, the CDs data surface should be completely dull (non-reflective) and have the same dullness across the entire area of the CD. it should also be very smooth to the touch. If there are still scratches on the CD, keep sanding until they are gone and the entire disc is smooth.
 
 After sanding your CD, dry it thoroughly and apply car polish liberally to the data surface.
 
 If you have a rotary polisher, apply polish to the buffer cloth, turn the polisher on hold it upside down. Lightly run the surface of the CD over the buffer to polish the CD back to usable form. If your buffer is an "industrial grade" type, it can potentially shatter your CD, so this method must be employed with great care. Even the cheapo buffers you get at the local k-mart can be dangerous to a CD, so be gentle. Continue to buff the CD, adding polish as it dries out until the surface is shiny again.
 
 If you DON'T have a rotary buffer, grab your cotton cloth and polish the surface of the CD by hand. Doing it by hand requires that you appply a good deal of pressure and, and it will take onsiderably longer than the buffer method. Keep polishing the CD, remembering to add polish when it runs out, until the data surface is shiny again.
 
 Assuming there was not damage to the label side of the CD, when you are done, your CD will be in mint condition.
 
 In case you are wondering, yes, I've done this myself with an old Nirvana CD that I've owned for ten years. Before fixing it, several tracks would not even play all the way through. Afterwards I was able to rip the entire CD to my computer with zero read errors.
 
 Good luck.

Dark_Me:
How does that work exactly? I'm not saying it won't. But just that I have no idea how it would.

toadlife:

--- Quote from: Dark_Me ---How does that work exactly? I'm not saying it won't. But just that I have no idea how it would.
--- End quote ---

It works becaus the "data" side of a CD doesn't actually contain the data. The data of a CD is written on the underside of the label side of the CD. The data side of a CD is simply clear plastic. Scracthes obscure the view of the CD's laser - the data underneath is still there - the CD just can't see it. Sanding down the CD's "data" side and polishing back to a miror finish simply restores CD drives ability to view the data.

The process I've descrived above is the "poor-mans method" of doing what commercial CD restoration services do. There are machines you can buy that do this automatically - movie rental stores have them and use them for the DVDs they rent out. The process can be repeated several times on the same CD/DVD, though I'm not sure how many times though. Eventually the CD would become to thin and the CD/DVD drive would probably have trouble reading it.

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