Easy Fix for Scratched CDs

NotQuiteOnto writes "Ben Hayes (om3ga) has performed an experiment as to the best method to fix scratched CDs. He set himself the criteria that it can't take longer that 5 minutes and it has to be something in his house. The result isn't what you'd think ..." Luckily, he stopped before "peanut butter."

Comments

Even Better

[Billosaur]

Just try using Pledge. I actually did this with scratches on my glasses (the lenses are plastic) and it works pretty well. Note: you'll probably have to do it again in the future, as I'm not sure how long it will last on the CD.

Re:Even Better

[cerberusss]

Just try using Pledge.

Or, if that's not available, use K-Y Jelly!!

Posting anon for obvious reasons... Oh and you have to put it ON THE CD

Re:Even Better

[cerberusss]

Note to self: check "Post Anonymously" if I say so in the post.

Re:Even Better

[famebait]

I've also tried various filling-in materials: chapstick, polishing wax, etc. They all seem to work as long as you can get the excess off cleanly. But I'm not certian if they work for the reason we like to think. One experiment left the scratch very visible, but the CD still working better. That got me wondering. So I tried filling with a positively opaque crayon (wiping away excess), and that worked too. I figured it could be done even quicker if I could skip the cleaning up, so I tried with a black fine-line felt marker, simly drawing a thin line on top of the scratch, and guess what: it not only worked fine, it could handle much larger defects than nothig else had been able to fix (well, actually there was a barely audible artifact, but aleast it played).

It has to be sad: this was on music CDs, so you can lose quite a lot of bits without serious harm to the result (and even a slightly audible tick is something you can live with), so it's not a fir comparison to software. But it did make me wonder: do all those remedies really help the machine read more bits correctly by repairing the refrective plane, as it is tempting to believe? Or do they simply allow the built in error correction do its job, by blocking the area where the (clear but warped) surface of the sratch would otherwise make the laser lose its tracking?

Re:Even Better

[Anonymous Coward]

"Oh and you have to put it ON THE CD"

Ok. I tried that.. but the hole is still too small. Should I try it with a CD from somewhere other than Virgin Music?

Re:Even Better

[poliopteragriseoapte]

This is similar to how you fix scratches or defects on telescope or camera lenses. The problem in even a large scratch or defect is not the 1% of lens area that will be unable to gather light. Rather, it is the fact that light is scattered all around by the defect, lowering overall contrast. So what you do is paint the defect black. This way, you lose an insignificant amount of light, but the contrast of the image is unaffected.

Perhaps for CDs there is a similar phenomenon. I am not sure how the error correction in a CD works, I am not sure whether it has the problem of "identifying" errors - I thought it simply applied to the data stream a standard decoding transform based on distance to a correct codeword. So perhaps part of the benefit of painting the defect black is that it cuts down on reflections, so that you can read neighbouring areas of the CD better?

I always used unflavored plain chapstick

[falloutboy]

1. Wash the CD with hand soap and water
2. Dry it off
3. Put a little chapstick on the tip of your finger, rub it gently in a circular motion on the surface of the CD where the scratch is
4. Wash again with hand soap and water

This seemed to work pretty well for small scratches.

You could still be fixing a cd

[Whatsisname]

Wow, that site got owned in less time than it takes to repair a CD!

Brasso works

[JavaBrain]

The site appears to be down? After visiting this website I've stuck to Brasso (and it really works great):

http://www.burningissues.net/how_to/scratchrepair/ scratchrepair.htm

Article Text as site is down...

[Anonymous Coward]

Scratched CDs? No Problem!
Published July 27th, 2006 in Main

We've all been there, bought a preowned game, put it excitedly into the console, then shouted "OMFGz0rWTF!?!?" as the console wouldn't recognise the game. Or perhaps you have a CD which contains important data, and M$ Windoze gives you a "Cyclic Redundancy Check" error (fancy way of saying 'Your disc is bloody SCRATCHED').

Whatever your problem is, it's caused by the same thing: A scratch. A scratched CD or DVD is just annoying!

So I took it upon myself to perform an experiment, to determine the very best way of dealing with a scratched disc. The limit I set myself, though, was that whatever I did it with must be somewhere in my house, and can't take longer than 5 minutes, including waiting time for things to dry, etc.

I thought of three main ways to cope with scratches:

1. Use an oily substance, or a gel, to fill in the scratch so that the laser goes straight through. This is the easiest option of the three.
2. Use a mild abrasive to round the edges of the scratches so that the laser doesn't get scattered as much. This is probably the most feasible option of the three.
3. Somehow take off a thin layer of plastic, removing the scratches altogether. This is the hardest, and probably impossible in 5 minutes with household items.

How a CD works:

I burnt 5 CDs with 6 songs on them:

* Kings of Leon - Razz
* Kings of Leon - Soft
* The Libertines - What Katie Did
* Kings of Leon - The Bucket
* Kings of Leon - Velvet Snow
* Kings of Leon - Taper Jean Girl

I then proceeded to scratch a few of the CDs with a pair of scissors, nothing deep, just enough to make the XBox in which I was playing them get annoyed.

The first thing I tried was plain old water, I know, sounds stupid... But the day before, I bought a game, which was scratched (not dirty, scratched). The first thing I tried was water, which I rubbed in gently, so that it stayed in the scratches, it then worked perfectly.

Next I had to rub it. The only way to rub something off a CD, is with a lint free cloth, going out in spokes from the centre.

Ok, so that didn't work too well on my test discs... Next up was, deodorant. I decided to use this, because it contained something oily (isopropyl myristate) which was dissolved in something volatile (denatured alcohol, propane, butane, isobutane, basically loads of hydrocarbons). So when I sprayed it on, I was hoping for the alcohols to evaporate while the isopropyl myristate separated into isopropyl and myristic acid to become oily and viscous, and stay in the cracks.

I rubbed it in gently, just to get it into the cracks, but not to remove it, and then let it sit for two minutes. It evaporated, and when held against the light, the "rainbows" got scattered less. It looked hopeful. But it didn't work.

Ok, next up is something I use to clean the fretboard on my guitar, Lem-oil. It's viscous and oily, and smells of lemon. I sprayed it on and this time had to rub slightly more vigourously, as it wasn't volatile enough to fit in with my 5 minute limit.

I rubbed it in, and it sort of worked. The XBox loaded the CD, and played it, but it was really crackly and noisy. So it kind of worked, but Caleb sounded pissed off and sort of like a monster.

Next I tried the method that a lot of people talk about: the toothpaste method. Toothpaste is a mild abrasive, and using it you should be able to round off the edges on the scratches. This method looked like it would work if I carried on, as the light was getting less scattered by the scratches, but I set myself a strict 5 minute time limit. To apply the toothpaste take the tiniest bit on the tip of your finger, and without touching the CD with your finger its self, apply

Re:Google cache of site

[dolphinling]

And after viewing it we find... it wasn't worth it. Just a bunch of "This didn't work. This didn't either. Nor this. And that didn't either. HAIR GEL! THAT WORKED!". No discussion on why or other things to try or anything.

At least it was short.

Fixing Scratched Vinyl

[Reverend528]

After years of use, most vinyl records develop a single deep scratch that spirals from the outside towards the center. I find that rubber cement can fix it pretty easily. I did this to some of my old records a couple years ago and they sound much better now.

Shouting "OMFGz0rWTF!?!?"

[turthalion]

From TFA:

We've all been there, bought a preowned game, put it excitedly into the console, then shouted "OMFGz0rWTF!?!?"

You know, I wonder how many of his readers have really shouted "OMFGz0rWTF!?!?"... I mean, how do you even say that? Where do you even start?

Re:Solution for slot-loading drives

[Daniel_Staal]

Dude, anyone who sees a bottle of KY Jelly next to your computer is likely to get the right idea about you...

old photographer's trick: nose grease!

[RMH101]

...also works on CDs. Turns out the refractive index of nose grease (i.e. wipe your finger down the OUTSIDE of your nose!) is approximately the same as celluloid. Hence wiping it on scratches on negatives makes them disappear. Also kind of works on CDs - same refractive index means less refraction from the scratch...

Workaholics!

[inviolet]

Wax? Pledge? Toothpaste? Buffing?

Y'all are a bunch of workaholics.

Just lightly wave a propane or butane torch over the scratches.

It works for all polycarbonates, including CDs, DVDs, helmet visors, motorcycle windshields, airplane windshields, cellphone screens.

The trick is to wave the flame over it so very very lightly and quickly, that the rough edges of the scratch briefly melt and flow.