Originally Posted by
Hsu
Those things are crap.
You want a good way to fix scratched CDs? A cheap one? Use toothpaste. I've used this on multiple CDs, like my disc 2 of Xenogears, and it went from locking up at a certain point to playing all the way through with no problems.
What you do is take a non-gel toothpaste (this is critical, as gel toothpastes don't have a gritty texture to them), and apply just a dab on a tissue or washcloth. Then, apply it to your CD, going from the inside of the disc outward. Don't go in circles on the disc, since that doesn't do anything. Go from the inside to the outside until you've gotten then entire surface of the disc, then wash off all of the toothpaste and dry it. Usually, when I'm drying, I just dab it with a towel, rather than trying to rub it down and potentially damage it further.
It may seem a little ridiculous, but it does work. Essentially what you're doing is removing a layer off of the disc, and evening the surface out so that your reader doesn't skip when it reaches the point of the scratch. That's why you need a toothpaste with a gritty texture, and also why you go from the inside-out rather than going with the grain of the disc.