Cure for scratched/damaged discs

[JoshDRAH]

Earlier today I was trying to turn my 360 around to plug in an ethernet cord, and the 360 almost fell out of the slot in my entertainment center. I caught it in time, but my Halo 3 disc came loose while it was spinning and I heard it kinda thrash around inside the XBOX. I took the disc out and noticed a ring around it where something inside had scratched it, so I tried putting it back in and I kept getting "disc unreadable". After trying to clean it with water, then rubbing alcohol, it still wouldnt work...so I started thinking. I used to work in a video store a few years back and we had a little disc repair machine that we used on our DVD's. Which basically just used this type of paste with little teeny tiny abrasives against a pad. Thinking of that same concept, toothpaste popped into my head. So I put toothpaste along the scratch and lightly brushed circles around the ring with an old toothbrush...and I'll be damned, it fixed it.

I had another disc that wasnt working, my Grand Theft Auto 4 disc...let a friend borrow it and he wound up trashing it pretty good. So I tried it on that and it fixed it as well. Obviously this wont fix EVERYTHING, depends on the severity of the damage. But if you have a disc thats giving you trouble, maybe give this a go. It worked for me =D

 

[JBroll]

Toothpaste is a commonly cited quick fix, but I never had much luck with it. I just make backups of everything that'll be important and in common use. I was wondering exactly what those repair machines did, so if you can spare more details I'd appreciate them.

Jeff

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Repair machines usually just take a thin layer off the serface of the CD.

I knew a guy who uses a car buffer lol: yeah you heard me right) to his cds when they got scratched. Funny thing was it somehow worked. :zombie:

 

[JoshDRAH]

Repair machines usually just take a thin layer off the serface of the CD.

This


Thats basically what they do...we had this white paste stuff that we would put on the disc, which was sort of like a guitar finishing polish. And you would just put it in this machine that would spin it on this pad while water sprayed on it from this little nozzle. That was just for fairly minor scratches/fingerprints and stuff.

But there was this other attachment that I never used, only the manager was "allowed" to use it. It was basically like a sander type deal. You put it in the same machine but instead of the polish stuff, it just sanded off a thin layer of the disc.

 

[narcossintese]

Wow, thanks for the tip. I didn´t knew it. By the way, if eventually your Halo3 copy mess again, the new "Halo3 ODST" comes with a second disc that contains the multiplayer part of Halo3 plus all the map packs released.

 

[Wolfeman]

I knew a guy who uses a car buffer lol: yeah you heard me right) to his cds when they got scratched. Funny thing was it somehow worked. :zombie:

That's what I use...... Just buffs out the scratches on the plastic, same as if you were buffing a car.... A Dremel or any grinder with a buffer attachment will work also. If you try this, make sure its low speed and don't overdo it, or you may burn the plastic.

 

[Notuern]

I usually use that stuff.
I spray it on, leave it there until it starts to dry in to this gluey paste, then i spray on a fresh coat, wipe around the disc a few times.. if the scratch is still there, repeat the same process until its gone!

I actually got a cd working that had a scratch that almost went right through it! o.0

 

[lilhermiejobo]

Reparing cds is nearly identical to drywall spackle or going to the dentist for tooth cavity fillings. They can only be repaired so many times, depending on pressure while repairing combined with natural aging of the cd, before they become brittle.

 

[Line666]

Repair machines usually just take a thin layer off the serface of the CD.

I knew a guy who uses a car buffer lol: yeah you heard me right) to his cds when they got scratched. Funny thing was it somehow worked. :zombie:

Have done that before and it has worked. Only for commercial disks though, as they seem to be more resilient surface wise.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Just don't do this to a blue ray disc. I have no idea why though (just hear say, for some reason it supposedly ruins the disc?).