Is there anyway to fix a scratched CD?

[RaynorWolfcastle]

I left my warcraft 3 CD face down on my desk a few days ago and forgot about it. I took a look at it this morning and it's scratched pretty badly. Now the CD takes forever to read, presumably because the drive is trying to correct all these errors. Is there anything I can do to fix this disk?

 

[Anubis]

Find a thing called CD fender they work wonders

 

[HalfCrazy]

I heard tooth paste works nice on scratched cd's. But I never tryed it my self.

 

[paperfist]

I heard the toothpaste thing too, but haven't tried it either. You're suppose to use the white only kind tho. What I find that works great on scratches is a good quality automotive wax. Put it on with a cotton towel and then buff it with another part of the towel. My 8 yr old nephew utterly kills his PS2 discs to the point they won't even play and I use the car wax on those and viola' good as new.

 

[Skibby9]

Here is an interesting technique... Haven't tried it myself but heard from others that it really works.

 

[VBboy]

Originally posted by: HalfCrazy
I heard tooth paste works nice on scratched cd's. But I never tryed it my self.

NOOOOOOOOOO
That's a NO

Toothpaste in the unchewed, unused form contains crystals (not even MICRO crystals, but large crystals you can feel). They will scratch up the CD like you wouldn't believe. I was stupid enough to try this once on a heatsink which I wanted to polish Bad idea.

For a few dollars, you can buy a CD repair kit which will help you professionally polish out all those scatches.

 

[Wintermute76]

Jsut tonight I got a thing called Disc Doctor I used it to fix up some CD's I let my sister borrow. They work good as new now, no more skipping. I got mine at Toys R Us since my G/F works there I got a discount. I think Best Buy has them also.

 

[Wolfsraider]

i got mine at staples but its a tedious project and will do most cds

but the car polish works better and faster

 

[PCMarine]

Hmmm...Interesting thread

 

[billandopus]

Never, ever, use toothpaste. That's a myth that has been around way too long.

 

[HannibalX]

Car wax is good, it fills in cracks nicely and allots the laser to go smoothly over the surface.

 

[DannyBoy]

May sound un-believable to most, but ive tried many techniques and one that works well for me, is a strong acid.

I tend to use a form of acetate put a bit on a cloth and give the bottom of the cd a good rub down all over.

Apparently this levels things out a bit and helps. Ive done it a few times now and it works wonders.

I tend to nick my g/f's nail polish remover as its got one of the strngest forms of acetate in it.

Regards
dan

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

I tried the auto polish today... it didn't help all that much. It still looks terrible, but it seems to get read a little better. What are the odds that if I send Blizzard an email, they'll send me another CD without a key?

 

[Maelsturm]

If you were to download the disc images, you should have no legal or ethical problems since you legally purchased the game.

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: Maelsturm
If you were to download the disc images, you should have no legal or ethical problems since you legally purchased the game.

This is a very good point.

Laws state there is nothing wrong with making a "back-up" copy of your cd's provided you do not re-distribute them.


Warcraft 3 is available for download using edonkey, via Sharereactor.com if you are interested.

Here is the link to the warcraft 3 download page :
Warcraft 3 on Sharereactor.com

Hope that helps
dan

 

[HannibalX]

MrFiTTy... yeah.. might want to take that down asap.

 

[CraigRT]

I've used ToothPaste to fix many damaged CD's... just don't use baking soda toothpaste or whatever they have in them.. they are very coarse and will scratch the CD... if you use regular crest or something, it works great. had a scratched CD that skipped all the way through a couple tracks.. couldn't even listen to them.. used the toothpaste... not ONE skip afterwards.

 

[Aiden]

the disc doctor and other cd scratch removers work really well. granted it does take a bit of effort,but you can extend the life of your cd's by 700-1000%. for 15$ or so,its worth it,since it works on any type of cd,and in most cases will work on dvd's as well.

 

[Alphazero]

If all else fails, you can get in touch with the publisher. Most will gladly replace it for you.

 

[LostHiWay]

Try boiling the CD for 2 or 3 mins. (It won't melt...I've done it before), after that clean it with some funiture polish.

Worked great for me.

 

[Atlantean]

There is a product called cd doctor or something like that at electronics boutique, it fixes cd's really well not sure about pricing, I think it is like $25 or so, but you can use it for any cd you have.

 

[dbwillis]

I use a cotton buffing wheel I used for polishing aluminum parts (its on a bench grinder).
press very softly and dont let the cd material heat up, its saved CD's DVD's for me.
If it heats up, the material melts and then your totally screwed

 

[mryellow2]

'Nother vote for cd doctor. Gotta really use the elbow grease with the buff pad for best results.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: dbwillis
I use a cotton buffing wheel I used for polishing aluminum parts (its on a bench grinder).
press very softly and dont let the cd material heat up, its saved CD's DVD's for me.
If it heats up, the material melts and then your totally screwed

I used something similar to that - there was a scratch remover for glasses in the checkout at Wegmans - it's shaped like a pencil; I rubbed that on the scratch of the CD, and went over it good with a soft buffing attachment for my Dremel; it works pretty nicely. I also have something from Kensington - CD Scratch Repair solution. Apparently, it's mildly corrosive, as it seems to melt the surface just a little bit - just enough to fill in most scratches.

 

[Dulanic]

Toothpaste will work IF you sit there and scrub it out from the center, NEVER do it circular... the reason it works is because scratches that go across cause the laser to follow the scratches path and messes it up... however scratches that go from the inside out, towards the outside edge of the CD dont cause the laster to go off track.... What rubbing it with toothpaste does is turn that scratch going along the path of the laser into a lot of small scratches going across the path of the laser, not along it. Toothpaste only works on not so large scratches tho... cause youd need to rub away too much of the CDs surface to get larger scratches to work ok.