Dealing with scratched CDs?

I've decided to re-rip my CD collection, to ensure that I also have a copy of my music in FLAC format.

Unfortunately, some of my CDs are a little bit scratched, and some of the tracks won't rip properly.

Any suggestions? Can I smear them with (I don't know) jam or something to get a good read this once?

(Obviously, I'm kidding about the jam)

That depends on the flavor involved...

There are scratch remover solutions out there, but I have never personally tried them. I would think that any of them would work for a single reading. Also, check with an optician - the same solution they use for treating scratches in eyeglasses should work very well for CDs.

I've heard toothpast suggested before, but I have never tried it myself. Remember that the data is on the label side of the disk, if the scratch is on the top theres nothing you can do, the data will have gone!

I borrow plenty of CDs from the public library, and some CDs look like they've been used for testing sandpaper...
Most can be helped along enough to rip properly with a coat or two of non-polishing car wax (I typically use Sonax "hard wax, art# 301100-540"). Where that isn't enough I use a car polish (again Sonax, don't have the bottle/art# handy) that cuts somewhat, but not as heavy as a rubbing compound.

A colleague bought a CD polishing machine and said it worked very well, although I think he was only using it to play CDs in a player. I think it was like this one:

http://www.pc-food.co.uk/storage/default.asp?ProdCatID=122

The other option is to try ripping from a different drive - some seem to be more tolerant than others.

Gareth

Most of the commercial products are either optical-equivalent patching compounds or polishers. Obviously, you'd have to buy something to get optical equivalence. So you're left with polishers. The polishers I've used don't even require that the disc be unscratched afterwards. You just need to get rid of severe radial scratches. Most of them still appear as if you've gone after them with steel wool afterwards. (And, yes, they do work, or at least make the CD work better.) So you could find a polising agent around the house. Maybe some metal cleaner like Brasso? (I suppose any petroleum products might dissolve the plastic, though, which is probably a bad thing.) Toothpaste makes sense. Maybe a baking soda paste? I've also heard peanut butter.

You might want to scratch a crap CD (do you get AOL ones in the mail over there?) and test any method out first before completely ruining a hard-to-replace CD.

First question: Are the scratches on the top of the CD (where the labeling is) or on the bottom of the CD (where the clear plastic is )?

If it's the top layer, you're scrod. Because that's the data layer, and if a scratch there has penetrated the silkscreen print ink and gotten into the actual data substrate, the bits are simply gone. I've had certain rippers like EAC be able to do enough retries and error correction on such discs to get a usable rip, but only if the scratch into the data layer was not severe.

If it's the bottom clear plastic, scratches down there are easy to buff out. When I worked at a jewelry store, I used to use the shop's buffing wheel to buff out the scratches, worked like a charm. These days, big record stores sometimes keep buffing wheels around just for the purpose of doing those kinds of fixes for their customers, so perhaps try some record stores.

You can also get manual hand-crank buffer tools at record stores. I've tried one of these, and it works but it's a real pain to use.

do you get AOL ones in the mail over there

We certainly do. I'm waiting for the first time I open a cereal packet and find an AOL CD...

I think that's already happened over here in the US. My kid gets little games on CD in her cereal boxes, and I think those almost always have an AOL sign-up offer on the CD with the game.

I doubt this actually helps, but when the top side of the cd is scratched in my collection, I’ll take a sharpie and fill in the spots in the foil which are letting light through the cd. This usually will help out EAC to make a more perfect rip.

I used the "Skip Dr.". It is an abrasive wheel device that rubs the scratch out. It is marketed under several names like "Game Dr." and "DVD Dr." but they are all the same product. I used it with great success on CDs. Very deep gouges or scratches on the data layer were not fixable obviously, but this thing worked like a charm. I'd give it one pass and let EAC try to rip again. It may not work on one pass, but you can tell from EAC's report that it got further into the track before failing. Some CDs took quite a few passes, but that 30 dollar device more than earned its value.

Skip Dr. <- I've never dealt with this vender, I'm linking just to show the product.

FWIW, I've repaired CDs with toothpaste and elbow grease -- at least well enough to get them to rip.

Jim

You might also try this which is used by motorcyclists to polish their windshields, which are also polycarbonate.

Jim

Quote:
First question: Are the scratches on the top of the CD (where the labeling is) or on the bottom of the CD (where the clear plastic is )?

In the two CDs that I've found with scratches (so far), it's the plastic that's been scratched.

Thanks guys, I'll try some of your suggestions.