How to clean and remove minor or serious scratches from your CDs or DVDs

[Robert Eric]

I've recently been going through all my old CDs, wishing that they were not scratched beyond recognition and still playable, when I started my search for effective methods on CD scratch repairing.

Cleaning your CDs
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First, you must wash the CD off in cold water.  After you have thoroughly doused it, get a lint free, abrasion proof cloth and rub the CD from the center of the disk to the end.  Do this all around the disk until it is dry.

Removing minor scratches
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There are many good professional scratch repair kits out in the market today, but if you're as lazy or crafty as I, you'll want to find a way to do it yourself at home, with home materials and chemicals.  You'll most likely have a bottle of rubbing alcohol at your house, but if you don't, you can get it from your corner drug store for a couple of bucks, or shillings.  First, rinse the CD off in cold water.  When it's nice and wet, put the folded cloth over the bottle tightly, then tip it long enough for the cloth to soak up a sufficient amount of alcohol.  Put the CD on a flat, hard surface and rub the cloth from the center of the disk to the end, all the way around.  Change the pressure you are applying according to the severity of the scratches.  Then, rinse the CD off in cold water.  Rub it off with a cloth to dry.

Removing major scratches
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Rinse your CD off in cold water.  When it's nice and wet, rub some toothpaste on it.  Trust me, it'll work.  Rub the toothpaste in it good, then with that cloth I had you used to clean it, wipe the toothpaste from the center of the disk out.  After that, rinse it off again with cold water.  Never use hot water, or it'll cause serious damage to your porn...er, game CD, or whatever...

If it still doesn't work, try again, or get a scratch repair kit.  If it still doesn't work, I hope the CD wasn't something important.

[Inkoddi]

..or keep the CD:s in their cases and you won't need to do all that

[TerranRich]

Oh, right.

Doctor! I broke my leg! What do I do?

Well, if you stayed sitting in your chair and didn't do anything active, you wouldn't need any surgery.

Duh

[remixor]

If it still doesn't work, try again, or get a scratch repair kit.  If it still doesn't work, I hope the CD wasn't something important.

Well, it was!  And I'm holding you responsible!

[Flippy_D]

Shillings?


Happily, all my CDs are in perfect condition. Except that one, that one, that one, that one, oh, and the one I melted, and that one, that one which had the unfortunate lemonade incident....

Ah, I see.

[BOYD1981]

..or keep the CD:s in their cases and you won't need to do all that

that doesn't always work, i've gone to play CDs i haven't played for years, taken them out the case and found to my absolute horror that they're scratched and don't work...
also, excessive usage of a cd/dvd can cause it to bugger up, and if it or the lens get dirty it can cause scratches, one of my favourite music cd box sets that i used to play all the time buggered up a few years ago, and this year i found the same box set up for auction on ebay and nobody else bid for it...
also, i recently read a thing on some site about the life span of a cd decreasing if it's kept in a dark place as opposed to a lighter place, but that mostly applies to CDR/RW discs...
okay, i've run out of alsos now.

[DGMacphee]

I don't know about the major method (The toothpaste one), but the minor scratches method is kind of risky, and here's why:

Most rubbing alcohol will take a thin layer off the CD's face.

However, if you do this too many times you could eat off the data of the CD and be left with nothing but a coaster for drinks.

I know this because this issue was raised in PC Format ages ago, where one guy wrote in a told people to use car polish to repair CDs.

The tech pages guy said the same thing -- be careful.