CD/DVD Scratch Repair
Here are some basic facts about scratches on CD and DVD discs.
- The data is stored just under the label. Scratches on the label side are irreparable. Fortunately, most scratches happen on the shiny side, and there’s a millimeter of clear plastic between the surface and the data. These scratches can often be fixed.
- The data is arranged in concentric circles on the disc. Scratches that follow this pattern (often produced by defective CD or DVD players) are the worst kind. Perpendicular scratches are often harmless due to the redundant data stored on a CD or DVD.
- You should start with a clean CD before attempting to remove scratches. Use an electronics cleaner, isopropyl alcohol, or distilled water and a paper towel. Avoid following a circular pattern when you clean.
- Make sure your CD repair device is clean as well. One large particle in the wrong place can compound the damage rather than fixing it.
Household Solutions
A jewelry polishing cloth and brass cleaner can be used to take care of minor scratches. Toothpaste can also be used. Carefully squeeze some cleaner on the scratched dvd. Spread the cleaner from the center to the outside rim. Rinse off with a stream of cold good quality water. Dry with the polishing cloth and let it sit over night.
- Rub from the center out, not around the circle.
- Avoid following a circular pattern when you clean
Commercial Products
ALLSOP 58200 CD/DVD Scratch Repair System
avg price: $6.99
Memorex 08007 OptiFix Pro Clean/Repair Kit
avg price: $22.99
According to reviews, this product may scratch the disk further. It is known to scrach small circular patters into the disc.
Digital Innovations 10185 Disc Repair System
avg price: $29.99
Digital Innovations 10185 Skip Dr. Motorized AutoMax Scratch Repair System
avg price: $28.00
Philips CD Repair Kit - PH63012
avg price:
SkipDoctor Classic
avg price: $19.99
Rather than polish in circles, the Doctor's flywheel conforms to the CD surface and polishes in a perfect center-to-outside radial pattern.
Software Solutions
Software cannot ever read data from a CD that is too badly scratched. For the most part, what software can do is, to put it simply, be more "stubborn" as opposed to the Windows operating system in trying to read a disc before giving up. It is theoretically possible for software to apply fuzzy logic to skip past certain areas and try to reconstruct, however, in practice it appears that the available tools mostly apply focusing in reread attempts, or just skipping past a bad spot and filling in with null data. Some tools may be useful, while others offer little more than what you can do with Windows yourself.
Roadkil's Upstoppable Copier
Copies data from broken drives and scratched cds.
sources:
- How To Read Scratched CDs or DVDs In Windows
- The five best emergency toolkit apps to have in the field
Laboratory Tests
Toothpaste and Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier Success
In practice we had a rare VCD of a movie we wanted to preserve by coping to a PC using vcdgear. The disc had a high number of surface scratches getting worse moving from the inside outward on the read surface of the disc. None of the scratches were extremely deep, but there were enough that were serious enough to prevent any of our drives from allowing full extraction of the movie.
We attempted to use Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier (we will call RUC here for short) when a Windows copy failed. RUC did not give up, like the Windows copy did. RUC did keep trying over several hours after about half way though where it was stuck. It was not making further progress and the disc drive was getting very warm.
There is a trick that sometimes works, by ejecting and closing the drive bay again sometimes this will cause the copy process to start progression again. It did not work with our scratched up disc.
We manually cancelled the copy in RUC. Then we removed the disc, and used toothpaste to buff the surface. Use a soft tissue to buff the surface of the disc with the toothpaste. DO NOT move in a circle with the circumstance of the disc. Move mostly back and forth from the inside out. We used a combination of (mostly) inside out back and forth with (some) very small circles and carefully polished every area of the read surface of the disc. Then the disc was rinsed with dish soap and cool to warm water. Once rinsed let the disc air dry or dry carefully with a very soft cloth. Make sure absolutely no dampness or moisture whatsoever is left on the disc before inserting into the PC CDROM drive.
The disc that was buffed with toothpaste did not visually appear scratch free! It won't, don't worry. The scratching was altered in such a way that they were less severe in improperly refracting the laser light. The key is to polish out the deep scratches creating very fine scratches, essentially polishing the CD. When RUC was used this time the entire movie copied to the PC successfully with only 1 error. The movie was saved and could be played with no noticeable defect.
STRAIGHT LINES OUTWARD! How you polish the disc is very important - always polish in a straight line from the radius of the center to the outside, rather than polish around the radius in circles. This is because the tracks on the disc are circles around the radius. Creating scratches in line with the tracks not only blocks reading from each data "dent" but the redundant subsequent "dents." Scratching in any direction other than along the tracks is far less destructive.
Again, use the cloth to gently buff the disc. Rub from the inner part of the disc to the edges in a straight line outward. Don’t move the cloth in circles or follow the lines imprinted in the disc. This could possibly scratch it worse.
Related Topics: Disk Data Recovery, Data Recovery From a Failing Hard Drive, CD/DVD Scratch Repair
