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fixing scratched DVDs and CDs
Feb. 28th, 2010 06:30 pmA few years ago I bought a boxed set of the original Outer Limits series. One of the disks in the set was badly scratched, making it difficult to view some of the episodes and completely impossible to view one of the episodes. That disk just wouldn't play on a standalone DVD player. The only way I could see those damaged episodes was to rip them to my hard drive. That worked for 3 of the 4 episodes on that disk, but the final one couldn't even be accessed by the computer.
I'd tried polishing the disk in an attempt to get rid of the scratches, but had actually worsened the problem, because I'd simply covered the surface with numerous, finer scratches. None of the different ways of polishing that I could think of worked. Even gently polishing with talcum powder and a cotton-ball only scratched the soft plastic further.
Today I decided to try a different approach. I used a cotton-ball again, but this time wet with water, and I polished it so softly that intuition told me that it would have no effect at all. I sat and polished for about an hour while listening to an audiobook. Eventually I could see the surface was definitely clearer and shinier. When I tried ripping the previously inaccessible track it worked. The disk was now smooth enough that I could read it. Yay!
The track is still damaged and there are some bad bits where the image breaks up, but most of the episode plays perfectly now. Quite a difference from before when it couldn't be retrieved at all.
I'd tried polishing the disk in an attempt to get rid of the scratches, but had actually worsened the problem, because I'd simply covered the surface with numerous, finer scratches. None of the different ways of polishing that I could think of worked. Even gently polishing with talcum powder and a cotton-ball only scratched the soft plastic further.
Today I decided to try a different approach. I used a cotton-ball again, but this time wet with water, and I polished it so softly that intuition told me that it would have no effect at all. I sat and polished for about an hour while listening to an audiobook. Eventually I could see the surface was definitely clearer and shinier. When I tried ripping the previously inaccessible track it worked. The disk was now smooth enough that I could read it. Yay!
The track is still damaged and there are some bad bits where the image breaks up, but most of the episode plays perfectly now. Quite a difference from before when it couldn't be retrieved at all.