High Volume CD/DVD Cleaning Options?

WasteOfAmmo asks: "I help administer a small software library where users are allowed to borrow CD's for a few days to install various software packages (yes, it is all legal, futher explanation is not necessary). Obviously as the CD's are circulated more and more they become more and more scratched, 'dirty', and abused looking. Eventuallly (sometimes after 1 use) the CD's begin to have read errors. Currently once the CD's are confirmed as 'bad' they are destoryed and replaced (re-burned). This system is costly if not in material then in time. I have been searching with little or no success for a commercial or mid to high volume (5 - 20 disks per day) system for cleaning/polishing/repairing (ie: removal of small scratches) CD's. I have read all about various cleaners (including toothpaste) and kits that can be used but in all cases the procedure is time intensive, typically targeted at low volume end users, and with dubious claims of success at best. What I am looking for a system that would work similar to a video tape rewinder: you pop the CD into it, hit a button, walk away; Sometime later you come back and presto you have a freshly cleaned CD. With all the libraries, video rental, and software 'collections' out there must be a better system then 'hand washing' each CD."

Comments

Game Doctor

[Chemical Serenity]

I found a little device in Electronics Boutique called the 'Game Doctor'. There's a manual and electronic motorized version. Requires no special parts aside from purified water to lubricate the process, and the results are nothing short of astounding. There's some CDs I had with gouges so deep I thought for sure I'd have to replace them and the Game Dr. ressurected them.

Definately worth an investment to check out, at the very least. I haven't come across a disk it hasn't been able to save yet.

Re:Game Doctor

[Chemical Serenity]

Reading the instructions helped ;)

I think the primary cause of failures that I could see was people just not lubricating (ie: spraying on enough water to keep the thing moving smooth). If you grind on a dry or under-lubricated disk, you might as well be using #60 wet-dry sandpaper, and start saving up for your next CD/DVD.

Hell, it even works on DVDs for me... my kids managed to completely mangle my old Matrix dvd, to the point where my player would completely barf on it about the point where neo took the pills... a little Dr. on it and it doesn't even skip any more.

Maybe I got a good one, I dunno. ;) Hasn't failed me yet, tho!

Ask Google & 3 Clicks Later...

[seigniory]

http://www.vcdr.com/CD%20Machine.htm

Valley Compact Disc Repair Inc. introduces the world's first and only fully automatic CD repair machine. The only machine available designed for performing CD repair as a business. The Disc-Go-Mech can repair up to 100 heavily damaged CD's per hour, unmanned!

What about damage to the TOP side?

[jerde]

I'm surprised nobody else mentioned that the Achilles' Heel of CDs are their TOP side, not the bottom.

CDs have all the data pressed or burned on a very thin layer just beneath the surface of the TOP side of the disc. Scratch that layer, you're actually scraping bytes right off the disc, permanently.

Scratches on the bottom side of the disc, a layer that includes almost the entire thickness of the disc, are minor by comparison.

DVDs are much easier to fix by polishing, because the data layer is in the exact middle of the disc -- indeed even "single-sided" DVDs are two half-thickness discs glued together. Thus the data layer is shielded from both directions, and it's much harder to permanently zarch a DVD.

- Peter