Surely there must be a way to polish out even deep scratches from CDs. I mean they sell the Disk Doctor which supposedly works, so there should be a commercial-quality equivalent process. I seem to remember seeing places back in OH that had signs advertising disk resurfacing. Do any national chains of music stores or game stores offer this service, and does it exist?

I'd like to be able to buy old beat-up playstation games and DVDs and music CDs at garage sales and get them fixed up.

I seen some industrial ones at cd exchange shops. If you cant find one in your neighborhood try looking on ebay for sellers of used cdees in your area, the big sellers would have one. For minor scratches you can try toothpaste, car paint scratch remover.

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That process is called "error correction"... 50% of the data on the CD is just for correcting errors and the process is already embedded in all players. If a CD doesn't play then no magic polish will retrieve the corrupted data. If it plays marginally then you should copy it with a bit accurate software and only play the copied media.

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??????

I've never seen a scratch on the playable side of the CD that can't be polished out and fixed 100% with a cd buffing machine.

Here's a random link to one: Disk Doctor NZ - CD / DVD Disc Scratch Repair

I believe that game crazy (part of hollywood video) does, but I believe it costs a pretty penny. I have heard that they charge upwards of $5 (7 if I remember correctly) I had a video rental place back home that charged between 3 and 5 depending on the scratches, by the logic that the more scratches, the more time it needs to spend in the resurfacing machine. But the best I have seen it is at family video, $2 per disk, plus I did like 15 disks and they only charged my $20. Also cd warehouse, formerly disc-go-round, I believe they were around $5. Try used videogame and CD stores as well as video rental stores. Call around to the ones in your area.

Regarding the above posts, I have had what appear to be tiny gouges on a number of cds (several tiny pinhole like dots through which you can see completely through the CD) and scratches that no amount of buffing could help them to produce a 100% error free copy in EAC. I should say the max number of attempts at a place with a low-end buffing machine was about 4 passes, but that still left about 3 tracks of a 12 track disk unrippable without errors and many similar disks were rippable, but with questionable accuracy.

imo scratches on the laser side (bottom) can be fixed, scratches on the top (letterside) cant.

I stand corrected... Bottom scratches can be buffed out.

Sometimes scratches in the protective layer on the bottom of the CD can cause problems reading the data layer. If this is the case, polishing can solve these problems. If the data layer itself is damaged, then no, polishing won't help.

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You do realize the data is on the top side of the disc, right? Normal scratches on the bottom do no damage to the data layer, which is why the disc can be polished or resurfaced to improve readability.

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The problem with that is that pressed CDs are much better quality in terms of how long they last, unless there was some flaw in the initial process.


I have spent a lot of time archiving rotting CD's which are borderline playable on some players. The age of the player seems irrelevant as older machines with better engineered clamps and laser mechanisms seem just as likely to be able to read damaged CDs as modern machines with more up-to-date error correction.

Curiously the error correction can often play a disc which can't be digitially transcribed via spdif to a DAT for example, in which case an analogue transcription is the only way.

Cleaning the discs definitly makes them play better and it's worthwhile buffing the scratches as much as possible before archiving them.

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Well, what do you know... I did some reading and you are correct. Bottom scratches indeed can be buffed out!

If you don't have that many discs to repair, it might be more cost effective to use a mail-in service such as this one: Scratched CD & DVD Disc Repair Machines & Services, Xbox, PS1 & PS2 Video Game Disk Repair Kits and supplies, Repair Damaged & Scratch CD's & DVD's Automatic Music Azuradisc

There are a few companies that resurface Cds fro under 3.00 a pop, I ahve tired afew fo them with good results, and yes the data is on the painted surface but scratches on theo ther surface lead to a laser error reading, and in some cases the resurfacing process fix that problem...

Try here

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That's true where I live. I have a friend that works there and she brings a lot of games/cds to life again for free

Meguair's Plastic Polish and Cleaner. Get it at the hardware store.

See ya
Steve