A second spin for a downtrodden disc part 1-repairing discs*

This is a thread created to share what information I have gathered and possibly encourage someone else who knows more than I to share their information.

I recently have been purchasing some CDs that were a little worse for wear. I've also had others of mine that were borrowed and abused that I wish to restore either cosmetically or functionally.

In this first part I'd like to address repairing your CDs with common items that we have in our household. This is the cheapest repair that we have at our disposal.

I've been researching and found many videos and reports that one can clean and repair a CD and scratches with items like soap, toothpaste, peanut butter, and car wax. I have found common dish soap is good but it will only clean your CD.

I have found toothpaste is really good but it requires a lot of effort. I have taken in high school to plastic pieces and laminated them together and polished the edges of the laminated plastic into a smooth shiny surface. This however takes hours and hours and a lot of toothpaste to do. most people don't have the time or endurance to do this so I wouldn't recommend it.

Some people have advertised peanut butter and made videos for YouTube but whenever they show how to do it and clean it or repair the CD they don't really show close-ups so I'm not all that confident that this really works.

I have also seen people use car wash that's liquid not any kind of hard paste to polish CDs and I think the whole idea behind this is to fill in any deeper scratches so that the laser can read the information a little easier. The idea is to have a more liquid type polish and put a little on work it in and then finally buff it off but to me this seems like you're leaving some type of coating on the CD as opposed to removing anything off the CD.

Of all these choices I would have to say the car wax seems to be the most effective. However again like the toothpaste it takes a lot of work sometimes to get deep scratches out so is it worth polishing your CD over and over and over?

1 last thought before I leave these suggestions is how one would apply these to the silver surface of the disk. when cleaning the surface people have recommended more than not to take your finger and work the agent into the surface in circular motions. I have also seen people say you can gently work in some agent but to clean it you would need to spray cleaner on and then wipe it off from center to outer edge in straight lines. This I guess would be an effort to not leave streaks in circular fashion across the disc to confuse the laser when reading the information. My only question is when you were chemicals in in a circular fashion aren't you defeating what you're trying to avoid? I guess that is for one to experiment and decide for themselves.

 

Generally the best thing you can do is use the professional-grade resurfacing machines that used to be common at video rental shops. Problem: video rental shops don’t exist anymore. Solution: video game stores (especially any dealing with used/retro consoles) do often have one of these units) so for the time being an effective repair method is reasonable. This really does take the disc to a like-new condition. You can’t do anything about really deep gouges or anything affecting the top layer of the disc


I’ve had the toothpaste trick work on a few occasions. I’ll use it as a last resort before having the disc resurfaced or buying another copy.
First I try to get an accurate error-free rip of as much of the disc as possible. Maybe there are a couple of problem tracks. I can try alternate read modes, repeat attempts, etc. and maybe one of those tries will produce a proper rip. If not, I can try to work some magic on the disc and attempt to rip those tracks on their own.

Sometimes the read errors don’t even need to be completely eliminated, just minimized enough that CTDB has enough correct data to repair the remaining errors and restore the correct original data. If a little toothpaste and elbow grease gets me to that point, that’s a win.

 

Ok, I'm inspired, and also bored. A while ago I purchased a copy of Pink Floyd's Animals which would not give me an accurate rip. I'm going to try some scratch remover and see what happens. Will report back with results.

 

I have used a Disc Doctor to good effect when toothpaste did not work.

 

The chemical ?

 

JFJ Easy Pro is the answer you seek. Works wonders on scratched CDs. I have recovered many a thrift store sourced CD that somebody did not care for like I would have.

 

That is certainly an option and the one I discussed at the very end but it is the most expensive option. So if you just have one CD want to repair it's not cost effective. Many here have stated that they never had to clean a CD in their life. So if you buy a brand new CD and take proper care of it this might be very true.

I may eventually get there but in the meantime I'd like to figure out a more economical way of dealing with scratches and skips then buying a several hundred dollar machine.

 

The Disc Doctor does not use chemicals. It uses abrasive.

 

There is something that's sold in a bottle that's called disc doctor. I was just thinking is this what you were referring to. So please enlighten me what is the difference between a chemical and an abrasive?

 

I'm back. After using Turtle Wax scratch and swirl remover, I reripped Animals with success.

 

Your local music shop that deals in used CDs will likely have one. Failing that a store that deals in used video games will have one for sure.

 

How about popping the problem disc in a microwave for a few seconds...






I assume 100% of the people here know it was just a smart-ass comment, but just in case: Do NOT, NOT, NOT do this. Unless you like dancing electrical sparks and acrid smells that last for days...

Cheers,
Robert

 

This is why I decided to get a lower end CD cleaner or restorer so it wouldn't have to pay $2 every time I wanted to clean a CD.

 

Putting a CD in a microwave will not only destroy the CD but the microwave as well. As a matter of fact any metal inside a microwave will short-circuit the microwave.

 

You did read my whole post, right? Where I indicated it was a joke and said not to do this...

But you're right about being mistaken: it won't destroy the microwave, and microwaves are popular appliances in nearly every household (North America anyway).

Cheers,
Robert

 

Nice, I’d love to see the logs!

 

It's wonderful to hear that anyone had success no matter if it's a high-tech or low-tech method. May I ask when you applied the turtle Wax and worked it in did you do it in a circular motion to work the wax in or did you use a back-and-forth motion from the center to the outer edge?

 

First cleaning was with a back and forth center to outer. I wasn't satisfied so I rubbed across the most visible scratches regardless of which way they ran. The product made the disc shiny, without causing any degradation. Some scratches are still visible, but the cd loaded and ripped perfectly.

 

I'd show them to you if I knew how to get them from the Mac mini they're on.

 

Thank you it's not necessary. I get the impression from your description. That's what I think is with the majority of the CDs because I run some of them through my disc cleaner and they don't look any better but sometimes they played better because enough has been cleaned away for your laser to read the information .

 

Interesting discussion.
I do a fair bit of manual polishing for metals etc with these fantastic 3M Polishing papers..
3M Polishing Papers - 12 Large sheets

I’m in the UK so this is the place I buy them from but being 3M they’re of course from the USA so sure plenty more places for those stateside to get them.

I’ve never tried on a CD but reading this thread made me think that they may work. It’s good to get the full selection of available grits.