While compact discs (CDs) are remarkably durable, it’s nearly impossible to prevent scratches and scuffs from occurring from time to time, especially with frequent use. The resulting damage can mean either a skip in your favorite music track or, in the case of data CDs, the loss of that spreadsheet you worked on for two weeks.
Don’t despair — repair! While commercial CD repair kits and CD refinishing machines are available, you may be able to repair the damage on your own with products you already have.
Note: Read the Warnings section as well as the methods before proceeding, to that you're fully aware of what can go wrong when attempting to repair a CD.
Clean the disc
Step 1. Clean the disc. Even if the disc isn’t actually scratched or scuffed, dust, oil, and other surface contaminants can prevent it from playing properly. Thus, cleaning the disc should always be your first move.
Step 2. Run warm water over the damaged disc to remove dust.
Step 3. If there is stubborn dirt or grease on the disc, gently rub it with your finger while you're washing it, and use a gentle detergent or liquid soap (with the water) or rubbing alcohol (instead of water). Any time you rub or wipe a CD, you should do so by starting at or near the center of the disc and rubbing straight outward toward the edge to prevent further scratching.
- When cleaning with rubbing alcohol, it is recommended that you use a Q-tip for cleaning the disc, since all Q-tips are cotton, which is what is recommended to use to clean a disc.
Step 4. Shake the water off and let the disc air-dry (do not dry it with a towel or cloth, and don't sun-dry it either).
Step 5. Try to play the disc. Many times a good cleaning is all that is needed. However, if problems persist after cleaning, try to play the disc in a different CD player. Some players handle scratches better than others; computer CD drives and car stereos tend to be the best.
Step 6. Burn a new disc. If you can get the CD to work in one CD player - especially your computer’s - but not in others, try burning a new disc. The CD burner on your computer may be able to read the CD well enough to produce a perfect copy. You may wish to try this even if the CD doesn’t play correctly on the computer.
Identify the scratch
Steps 1. Locate the scratch. Actually looking at the disc will be easier if you can figure out where the offending scratch is. Visually inspect the CD's playing surface for scratches or scuffs.
- Scratches that run perpendicular to the CD’s spiral - that is, those that run generally from the center to the rim - may not affect playing at all, and in any case are generally less damaging than those that roughly follow the direction of the spiral. The latter indicates the loss of many consecutive data bits, which may make it difficult for the Reed-Solomon error correction algorithm to guess the missing data.
- If there are several scratches, but the CD only skips in one or two places, you may be able to approximate the location of the offending scratches based on which track skips. The first track of a CD begins near the center, and the direction of play proceeds outward to the edge.
Make sure the disc is indeed scratched. If the disc is not visibly scratched, the problem likely lies elsewhere. Other problems could be surface dirt or a malfunctioning CD player
Repair foil scratches
Step 1. To determine if you have a scratch in the disc's foil, hold it in clear view of a bright light, shiny side up. Look to see if there are any small areas of the disc that show signs of the foil missing.
- See if any pinholes are visible. Holes in the foil layer of a CD are generally not repairable, not even by a professional.
Step 2.Flip the disc logo side up, and mark where these areas are with a whiteboard marker pen
Step 3.Get two small strips of masking tape, and lay them one on top of each other over the area you have just marked. The CD may run a little loudly, but it will more than 70 percent likely repair the little missing pieces of foil.
Do data recovery
Steps 1.Engage in data recovery. Many burning programs can be set to continue reading after getting an error (such as not being able to read a section due to a scratch). If the program can't read a section at all, it will fill it with random data. They can also try to read the bad section by reading at a very slow speed multiple times.
Step 2. For Windows, Nero does this, while Linux has the Ddrescue tool.[1] This can often fix damaged CDs, and is especially effective with audio CDs (where accuracy isn't as important).
- Since this method doesn't risk damaging the CD, it is a good idea to try it before attempting the more drastic methods listed below. If the other methods damage the disc, at least the data recovered by this method can still be used. Note that due to the slow reading, and multiple attempts at trying to read a damaged section, these programs can take a very long time to complete (a Windows XP disc recovered with this method can take about two hours).
