Removing scratches on DVD discs?

Question

I have a swap magic disc that is severly scratched but it still works but it really takes a while to load and I am sick and tired of it.

When it starts, it shows the "Browser" and "System Configuration" and I have to choose the Browser and wait until the the disc sign appears, but it takes from 1-7 resets to get it working.

Can anyone give me a solution you can find at home to lessen these scratches at least without buying a scratch remover?

Answer 1

Someone else already said toothpaste not gel, and that's right. Know a couple of things-scratches on the read side of a disc aren't as bad as scratches on the label-weird as that seems the plastic layer on the read side is thicker than on the label side so are less likely to warp the data layer. If your scratch is on the label you'll have to live with the headache. As long as it's on the read side you have the chance to fix it. The scratch screws things up by reflecting the laser away from the data layer so that it returns prematurely before it 'picks up' data, bounces across the disc and brings back data in the wrong order causing corruption, or bounces away from the receiving lens and doesn't bring the data back. The middle one is the real problem. Since it sounds like your disc works fine once it gets going it's probably that there's only a small section of the scratch that's deep, wide or caused a split in the bottom plastic layer. Toothpaste creates a dead area of the disc where data can't be extracted but it also won't refract to a parallel data track, do that problem where your data becomes corrupt won't happen. The problem with toothpaste is that you're playing with the disc itself, and I'd suggest starting with something that causes no physical change to the disc.

You could try to burn a copy. It's perfectly legal to copy software that you own as long as the copy is for personal use, so the only real issues are time-which you're already spending getting things running-and possibly the cost of more software-but since all of these utilities are either freeware or have free trials there shouldn't be any money involved as long as you're willing to get things done fast. Since there's always the chance that there's no protection I'd start with Nero. If Nero is blocked (try making a data DVD-it'll fail fast if it's going to) you could also try a program like dvdshrink (freeware) or DVD2One (free trial) to make a copy-both are easy to use (dvd2one might require working from an image that you make with something else, I suggest dvd decrypter, also freeware)but if either needs to compress the data the disc probably won't work, but a dual layer DVDR should take care of that problem. You may also need to override copyright protection, ClonyXXL is a useful tool for identifying protections, but if that doesn't work you'll have to look.

None of that can damage your disc, which is why I'd start there before trying toothpaste. I'd use toothpaste before a scratch remover. Most scratch removers don't do anything to deep scratches-most only remove cosmetic scratches from discs that work fine, because most are simply extremely fine polishes that scrape away a tiny amount of the disc surface. A few are solvents that partially dissolve the plastic layer, which are more certain to produce the desired result but need to be used carefully so they don't damage the data layer. The last thing that I'd try is high grade car wax. Just like scratch removers, it's a very fine polish, but it's both more concentrated so it'll do scrape away the plastic layer faster, and if it's high grade and you're careful with it it won't hurt the data layer. The main problem with it is that since it's thick people tend to use too much pressure and either warp the data layer or abrade too deeply, which can screw up the optical qualities of the plastic layer as much as the scratch.

Answer 2

You can always try toothpaste. I had a problem with one of my movies skipping all the time. I applied regular (not gel) toothpaste to the strached areas and left it there for about an hour. I ran it under the sink (It's just plastic) then used a soft cloth to wipe away the rest, from the center out. I had cloths that came with a screen cleaner for my monitor, but you can use a lens cleaning cloth. Just nothing too abrasive.

I did it that one time with one disc, and it worked. It may or may not work for you.


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Answer 3

All I do is wipe the disc from the centre out and it works fine, but that's when they have just a few scratches on. If you can't seem to fix it you'll have to buy a special cleaning tool which 'wears' the disc down to remove the scratches.

Answer 4

Yes u can remove scratches from a DVD disk all you have to do is go to a store like Target, Wal-Mart, etc. Go to the electronic area and they do sell the repair kits for those kinds of things. You should be it because it does work.