Recovering broken cd's

[Arrrhalomynn]

I've got this scratched cd of dragon force that doesn't work anymore. I'm thinking about having it polished, but I'm not sure if that'll actually help. Does anybody here have any experience with that?
And If it does work, will it look like new? Will it loose value as compared to a working scratched cd?

[Lord Nepenthean]

I'm not an expert on this, and have never used one of those CD Doctor things, but don't they basically just shave a layer off the entire disc, so that there is no longer anything "raised" above the level of the scratch?  That's how I always understood they worked, anyway.  So, doing it to a disc once or maybe twice might get it to work, but if it gets scratched again after that, it might not.

I have never had a CD so scratched it stopped working, but I guess if that's what happened to yours, you don't have anything to lose.

[Hydrobond]

Yes, the CD Doctor things take a layer of plastic off of the bottom. It is pretty much a one time deal, you can't do it a second time, you will run into the dye.

[Arrrhalomynn]

There's this company I know of that polishes cd's. I think they charge 5 bucks or something. I'd have to pay 4 euros to send it too. So I do have 9 euros to lose.  It may not be a lot of money, but I'd rather not spend it untill I know it will work.

[Hydrobond]

That sounds different, almost like they will be filling in the scratches with a material instead of grinding the extra off.  This sounds like it will be much better for the CD, but I can't say I've ever heard of it.

[Sauza12]

I think that the CD doctor has a plicy that if thier product doesn't fix your CD, then they will buy you a new copy of whatever it was that you were trying to fix.  That guarantee might not be effective for a system like the Saturn that is no longer in the marketplace, but it night be worth a shot.

[Hydrobond]

How much more expensive is this special treatment than a CD Doctor?  Neither are for sure, but I think you would have better luck with a company than with a product with "As Seen On TV" on it.

[den68]

that CD Doctor leaves quite an unsightly pattern on the CD too. you can sure tell if one's been doctored and yes I'd say it could hurt the value. a lot of collectors won't buy CD's that have been doctored, due to appearance alone. the things look like a rotary sander was taken to them.

I've heard you can use toothpaste to buff out scratches on CD's. sounds weird to me but those who have tried it swear it works.

[Arrrhalomynn]

I already tried the toothpaste thing

[Antimind]

I've used a doctor on cds and some psx games but they're things I just wanted to use and don't give a fuck about collection wise. It works great for fixing the stuff but all of the above remarks hold true. As far as a collectable disk is concerned well.. If the fucker doesn't work then what's the point really? Might as well take a crack at getting it fixed one way or the other.

[2D-Forever]

I used the Doctor on one of my favorites PSX games, and it worked great, even though it did look like a rotary sander.

Then my friend borrowed it and scratched the data layer off the top.  That pissed me off.

[thx1138]

I use baby wet wipes to clean games on disc that I bulk buy at auction.

In the past I've had a couple of discs polished by machine, you couldn't see an y scrathces afterwards, but they didn't all work, and where the discs had PS logos on the surface, they were polished out altogether.

[Izret101]

The ones you use in stores work fine but your only supposed to do it a limited number of times and if the person does it wrong it can make things worse.
Some of the DIY ones can also make them unusable/unfixable. Buyer beware.

[logical123]

Best way of fixing disks:

http://gametz.com/forum/C...ace/topic/307067.html#new

He uses this machine that ever so slightly applies heat to the surface of the disk, then smooths it out. The problem with disk doctor and even the machines at professional places is that they buff the disk, which is actually just making lot's of scratches. With his method, it actually removes the scratches. I've seen some before and after pictures, the disks look brand spankin' new.

[Izret101]

If a buff is done correctly the scratches are super fine and actually with the rotation of the original "scratches" that the laser follows. And hardly noticeable if at all.