Can scratched CD's be repaired?

Subject: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: GUEST,Steve Latimer
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 10:51 AM

I have a CD that I dropped and it scratched causing it to skip. Is there anyway that you could fill the scratch with to stop the skipping?

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Pene Azul
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 11:12 AM

There are several products that are claimed to do that. I haven't tried any of them, but you'll find info in this Google search. I'm sure you'll find some firsthand advice here soon.

PA

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: GUEST,Steve Latimer
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 11:33 AM

Pene,

Thank you. There sure is quite a list there. Anyone ever tried them? How did they work?

Steve

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: GUEST,Yvonne
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 11:56 AM

Steve, I've seen it demonstrated on QVC shopping channel and it worked for them!!!! Mind you, most things work for them then I get hold of the product and..........well you can guess the rest!!

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: GUEST,Joerg
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 09:15 PM

Never tried it with CD's, but: If scratches in plastics are not too deep you have a good chance to polish them away. That means to make them invisible, and that should be what is needed in that case.

All you need is some polishing past (is that the word in english or what is correct?). Toothpast (the white-looking kind) is some very fine kind of this. I would try it first with a very soft, very clean cloth, it's unlikely to damage the CD. If this doesn't work I would get some coarser polishing past (not recommendable for teeth).

I would NOT try to somehow fill the scratches. For this I would need some material of exactly the same refractive index as the lacquer on the CD, and when applied, and provided it sticks I would first have to grind and still polish it to the extremely even surface shape of the CD before being able to test the result without the risk of damaging my player.

Joerg

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Tony Burns
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 10:06 PM

Steve, My son brought home some kind of CD fix it stick a couple of years ago and I was amazed at how well it worked. It reminded me of a magic marker. Sorry I don't remember any more about the product. I think he picked it up at Sam's or HMV.

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Gary T
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 10:08 PM

Joerg, the word is spelled "paste", pronounced the same as "paced". There is a word "past" (pronounced like "passed"), meaning roughly earlier in time, gone, beyond.

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Sorcha
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 11:05 PM

Still, we understood the intent (with reference here to the spelling/grammer thread--NO slam, Joerg). And I thought tooth paste was a mild abrasive? If so, it could put more small scratches on the CD. In the UK isn't it called tooth "powder" even if it is a paste? (Too many British mystery novels........)

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Naemanson
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 11:17 PM

Sorcha, toothpaste is a very fine abrasive. My father uses it as the final polish for his scrimshaw work.

I think I saw a gadget advertised once in a magazine, I think it was a computer magazine, for rescuing scratched disks. I don't know any more than that except you might expand your search to the computer world.

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 12:46 AM

Ah, who else remembers the early adverts for these things - there was a famous one on 'Tomorrows World' (UK show looks at inventions and their effect on the present and future - boy did they ever get it wrong about Betamax!), where they drive a car over the CD and then play it - of course, it is perfect. They never tried it with a toddler did they? Or a cat.

LTS who has a vast collection of shiny things that no longer play/load properly.......

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Grab
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 08:48 AM

LtS, I think there'd be some complaints if they ran over a toddler or a cat in a car! Well, maybe not the toddler, but there are some nice cats out there...

Grab.

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: GUEST,Joerg
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 09:17 AM

Sorcha - polishing is indeed originally a grinding process (and I think this also applies for the english word). Every such process causes scratches, but if these are smaller than about one micron they become invisible because the wavelength of visible light is about that value. Polishing means grinding by using an agent (?) with grains of smaller size in order to grind visible scratches away. As far as I know the grains in industrial polishing pastes are still larger than those in tooth paste. So if you don't add larger grains (e.g. from a dirty cloth) the CD won't be damaged. BTW medical cotton wool (hoping that's correct) is also suitable to be used instead of a cloth.

Tooth paste works also well cleaning jewelry. I have some silver piece which is gold-plated at one spot and that spot always develops a very thin violet layer of some oxide (I would be interested in what kind of gold that is). Tooth paste removes that layer at once without damaging the glossy surface.

So I would in any case try tooth paste first, because with the appropriate care I could see no risk at all. Only if the scratches are too deep it becomes complicated. They can still be ground away but one must use a coarser grinding agent first, which will make the surface opaque and then polish these scratches away. But the more you grind the thinner becomes the lacquer and that might have an optical effect by defocusing the laser beam.

I would be very careful with things that stick to the CD. If it doesn't work, how am I to remove it?

Good luck.

Joerg

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Penny S.
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 04:11 PM

In the UK there is a product which is a white paste which is rubbed over the CD, produced by one of the main record, tape, video cleaner firms, and it does work. I brought a CD-Rom back from the dead with it at school.

Penny

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 09 Oct 01 - 09:44 PM

I found a product that has worked on a few of my CD's. It's called the Bona Fida Perma-Spin Skip Fixer. It's made in Canada by Exclumen CD Tech. It is a pink liquid that seems to have the consistency of liquid car wax (it wouldn't surprise me if that's exactly what it is). I had a few CD's that were scratched and I was able to restore most of them to their original state.

I went to their Website and it lists a few products. I clicked on the Perma-Spin one and it didn't work for me, but there is contact info there. I bought mine in a used CD store.

Click here

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 12:21 AM

I once took a CD to a CD repair service (this involved making two 110 mile round trips by car). They assured me when I left my CD with them that they could fix it. Turns out they couldn't, because the CD was scratched on both sides. Live and learn.

Subject: Scratched CD's CAN be repaired, but...
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 03:16 AM

...All the consumer reports I've seen say that reparing a scratched CD isn't worth the time, effort or money...

They are SOOOO easy to replace, why would you need to fix 'em?

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 08:23 AM

Clinton,

I think I paid about $5.00 Canadian for this stuff. I have probably successfully repaired 5 CD's of my own and two for a buddie. I also had 2 that it didn't completely repair. It takes about 2 minutes per CD. So for under 20 minutes time investment and $5.00 I have saved seven CD's, I figure at an average of $15.00 each I'm up about $100 versus replacing them.

The FAQ section of their website does say that if they are scratched on the top they can't be repaired.

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Skeptic
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 08:35 AM

Clinton,

I've used a product from Maxell with so-so results. Tried on both data and audio and for some reason had much more luck with the audio. (Maybe becasue my son uses teh data CD's more an dhas a bad habit of dropping them on the floor) But my sucess rate was still around 50% overall.

If you find one that works (and is available in the US), please share.

Regards

John

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 10:38 AM

Skeptic,

Funny you should mention that the success rate of the Maxell product is much better on audio CD's. The two that I haven't been able to repair are music CD's that were burned from MP3's. I have head a 100% success rate on store bought audio CD's.

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: mousethief
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 10:49 AM

I've done some research on cd repair.

As we all know, a CD is a sandwich of two pieces of acrylic and a piece of aluminum foil. The acrylic on the "play" side is thicker than the acrylic on the "label" side, so it is generally true that a scratch on TOP of the CD will be more likely to affect repairability. But the real issue is the foil.

Hold it up to the light. If there is a hole in the aluminum foil, there will be a pinprick of light. These canNOT be fixed, so if there is a skip there, you're stuck. (Remember a CD plays from the inside out, so a scratch near the middle will affect earlier tracks, and a scratch near the periphery will affect later tracks.) Not all pinprick holes in the foil will cause skips or drop-outs, though, because the data is recorded somewhat redunantly. Some skips can be filled in by the logic circuits of the CD player from the redundant data.

There is a used CD shop really close to where I work that has a very sophisticated scratch-polishing setup. I myself have a tube of scratch cream of some sort which I use for the little scratches. Larger ones I take to the cd shop. If they can't fix it, I have to buy a new copy.

If this is a one-of-a-kind CD, that you can't just run out and buy a replacement for, then you can always record the tracks as WAV files and use a WAV file fixer-upper program (many exist) to fix the data loss. These programs will generally take some of the sound from either side of a skip to fill in the missing data. Then burn the whole thing onto a new CD-R (or CD-RW).

A word to the wise: NEVER store your CD's in one of those sleeve-insert type albums for long periods of time. And the larger the album (more pages, more CD's per page), the more likely it is to slosh around (say, on a car seat) and rub holes in the CD's. I lost about 10 cd's out of a 244-cd album before I learned this! Tiny bits of dust and rock will get in there with your CD's, and every time the album shifts, the dust and rocks will dig into the CD's. Eventually they get all the way through the acrylic and put holes in the foil. Arrrrgh!

Alex

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Louie Roy
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 10:50 AM

I have a seven page set of instructions showing you how to repair a scratched CD(step by step)and it works.I will gladly copy and mail to anyone who sends me their mailing address.LouieRoy

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 11:18 AM

Alex, is that true if the sleeve case doesn't travel? I have one with over 200 pages which just sits near my desk. If I take it anywhere, which I've only done once or twice, it is always zippered closed until we are out of the car and in wherever we are staying.

My sister records all of her CDs onto new blanks and uses those copies for her travelling, so the originals are always at home in their sleeves.

Sorcha, I had a silversmith friend show me the same thing with toothpaste; told me to use it on all of my silver jewellry, which I've done with great results. I was shocked in metalsmithing class at how much abrasive, polishing, and sandpaper was used, even to the final stages, on fine silver.

kat

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: mousethief
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 11:24 AM

Sure, kat, as long as it's not moving, it's okay. But when you open those things the pages slide back-and-forth over each other. I'm sure just sitting on your desk it doesn't get nearly the wear and motion mine did, sitting under my elbow in the van. And if you keep it zipped it gets less sloshing than if it's unzipped. Still, I have moved all my music CD's back into jewel cases and take just a handful with me when travelling. I might move them into a little 20-CD flap pouch I have, but never again in one of those mega-carriers.

Your sister has the best idea but it's costly.

If you were shocked by silversmithy, don't go near a goldsmith! :)

Alex

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: robomatic
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 08:25 PM

If it is a store-bought CD, it's probably a bit more rugged than CDRs (the kind you buy) And the CDRs you buy are different in quality, too. I bought some real cheap store brand from CompUSA and it turned out the recording layer was painted on the top of the plastic, so if you wrote on the top or scratched it, you lost your music.

Anyhow, store bought CDs can be fixed with those inexpensive kits. I had a bad scratch I was basically able to recover from on a Screamin' JAy Hawkins CD I didn't want to lose. One important point: If the scratch is circumferential, you have a lower chance of recovery, for there is a lot of data in sequence that is potentially compromised, if the scratch is radial, you have a real good chance of fixing it, and of course, the less deep the better in both cases.

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 08:29 PM

Since I refinish violins I just use #12,000 micromesh (cloth like sandpaper) and rub in a radius direction. Reclaimed a CDrom this way.

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 12:50 PM

To Clinton Hammond: the CD I was hoping to get repaired cast me $30.00 new. It was a hard to find import with limited copies available. It was a soundtrack album from the Ralph Fiennes/Juliette Binoche version of "Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights." My copy was damaged by a malicious CD player that loaded improperly. The music on it was composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto and featured performances by Davy Spillane. I'm still hoping to replace my copy someday. I've tried every search imaginable with no luck. So that's why I tried to get it repaired. Had it been : "The Best of the Clancy Brothers" I would have just bought a new one.

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: cyder_drinker
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 07:37 PM

A few of my CDs went "skippy" on me. Seemed to be mostly ones with more than the standard 74 minutes of audio on. Then I bought a decent CD player, and even the badly scratched ones play OK on it. Perhaps its a digital thing, but I can play one disc on mine that no-one elses I know will cope with.
Like a previous poster, though, any CDs I travel with I copy first and leave the originals at home in their cases. Damage isn't the issue here, but if they (originals) got stolen I would be more than a little bit pi$$ed off.

Subject: RE: Can scratched CD's be repaired?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 07:47 PM

speaking of traveling cd's and music.. anyone else out there got a boner like I do for the 20 gig Nomad MP3 plyer?!?!?!?!

I wan't one of these puppies SOOOOO bad...

can hold up to 4000 songs!!!

How cool is that?!?!?!?