Ripping with EAC

[caveman]

I have read on these forums of people who manage to rip badly scratched CD's with EAC but complain of time taken. My question is I would be happy to wait a long time if I could configure EAC to do it, but my configuration allows error correction to run through the four? bars of lights before it just aborts the track as read errors.
I have access to many poor condition CD's how do I configure EAC to persevere with rip.

 

[nobody020]

From my use of EAC (and I'm definitely no expert with EAC), I thought that the four bars of lights were EAC trying to re-read a sample on the CD with errors... if it gets through the four bars, it will abort because it's unable to read that sample correctly.

There are a few physical corrections that you can do to a CD to make it easier to read. Some of them include polishing the reading side of a scratched CD with Brasso (brass cleaner, yes -- take a clean soft cloth and a dab of brasso, then polish CD with straight strokes from the center to the outside. don't polish in circles). Of course, there are a ton of varying techniques for polishing CDs to restore reading, and the one i've highlighted is merely an easily achievable one. Don't take my word for it though, do a few searches on hydrogenaudio or on google...

 

[Patchmaster]

When trying to physically reconstitute a CD, be VERY careful of the TOP side of the CD. On the bottom there's a fairly thick layer of plastic between the surface and the actual data, but on the top the data is protected only by a very thin layer of material and the label. Scratches on the bottom can make it difficult or impossible to read the data underneath, but the data is still there and if you can buff out enough of the scratch you can probably get to it. Scratches on the top can literally remove the data.

As for EAC, if it's going through all four bars worth of re-reads, it sounds like you already have it configured to do the best possible job of ripping. The next step would be the Brasso, though I'd be real careful with petroleum based products. They could end up softening or even eating through the plastic. I've heard toothpaste can help. You can also get stuff intended to remove scratches from plexiglass. I have a scratch repair kit for my acrylic aquarium that I've used on a couple CDs before. There's also some gizmo you can get that literally grinds off a bit of the underside of the CD. I've heard it works well as long as you don't overdo it.

 

[nobody020]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patchmaster When trying to physically reconstitute a CD, be VERY careful of the TOP side of the CD. On the bottom there's a fairly thick layer of plastic between the surface and the actual data, but on the top the data is protected only by a very thin layer of material and the label. Scratches on the bottom can make it difficult or impossible to read the data underneath, but the data is still there and if you can buff out enough of the scratch you can probably get to it. Scratches on the top can literally remove the data.

I would absolutely agree. ALWAYS keep this fact in mind when polishing CDs and only polish them on smooth surfaces where all the dirt, grit, and little pieces of rock have been removed.