best methods for repairing CD/DVD scratches?

[bolomite]

I'd rather not spend $10 - $15 for some 1 oz. bottle of resurfacing liquid/polish or whatever. Any budget methods that are also effective?

 

[isekii]

buy a new one

 

[0roo0roo]

brasso, or whatever silverware/brass polish they have at the store. lots of elbo grease.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

I've also heard brasso works very well, no personal experience though.

 

[LordRaiden]

I've heard peanut butter works good for filling in scratches on cd's and dvd's. Can't verify that this works, but that's what several people have told me.

 

[bolomite]

Originally posted by: LordRaiden
I've heard peanut butter works good for filling in scratches on cd's and dvd's. Can't verify that this works, but that's what several people have told me.

 

[Sid59]

i've had good luck with toothpaste.

 

[Shawn]

peanut butter? toothpaste?

 

[LordRaiden]

Originally posted by: Sid59
i've had good luck with toothpaste.

I can believe it. I believe the idea behind the suggestions I've seen so far is using something like a paste that fills in the scratches without blocking the laser from seeing the film underneith. Usually what I do with a seriously scratched disk is I use something like clone CD to pull a good copy of it, then store that away just in case, make another copy that I can beat up and kill if need be while putting the scratched cd away in a safe place.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: LordRaiden

Originally posted by: Sid59
i've had good luck with toothpaste.

I can believe it. I believe the idea behind the suggestions I've seen so far is using something like a paste that fills in the scratches without blocking the laser from seeing the film underneith. Usually what I do with a seriously scratched disk is I use something like clone CD to pull a good copy of it, then store that away just in case, make another copy that I can beat up and kill if need be while putting the scratched cd away in a safe place.

But how can clone cd make a good copy if it cannot read from the cd?

 

[Triumph]

Honestly, I've been able to fix skips in most of my CD's by simply washing them with warm water and some liquid soap. Usually they're just dirty from too much handling, or there's something sticking to the surface.

 

[Joyride]

Originally posted by: Triumph
Honestly, I've been able to fix skips in most of my CD's by simply washing them with warm water and some liquid soap. Usually they're just dirty from too much handling, or there's something sticking to the surface.

But that still doesn't save you from the scratches

 

[chin311]

d/l a new copy

 

[Triumph]

Originally posted by: Joyride

Originally posted by: Triumph
Honestly, I've been able to fix skips in most of my CD's by simply washing them with warm water and some liquid soap. Usually they're just dirty from too much handling, or there's something sticking to the surface.

But that still doesn't save you from the scratches

No, but I'd say that a majority of my skips weren't from a scratch at all, which may be the same problem the original poster has. No reason to go through the hassle of removing scratches if they aren't there in the first place.