Furchild

Many of us by now have probably managed to amass rather large and impressive collections CDs, DVDs and game discs. As the discs get older and are used more often the possibility of damage increases as does need to effect repairs.

Many scratched CD discs, DVDs or even game discs can be replaced quite cheaply.

However the same can’t be said for scratched discs that are original recordings of your own personal memories such as home movies and digital photos stored on discs. Similarly you might have scratched DVDs or scratched CDs that are not on sale any longer.

The simple solution is to always make copies as a backup of those discs as soon as you buy them and before they get used and abused, but often we overlook this until it is too late!

So what can you do to recover the data from a scratched CD, game disc or DVD?

There are three main alternatives to deal with this problem.

The first way is by using software and is the safest.

There are a number of specialist software products available that have DVD error correction capabilities built-in or have been specifically designed for this purpose.

Whether you are successful or not with this method depends on the degree of scratch damage the disc has sustained but it is the best because it doesn’t interfere with the surface.” Regardless of success or failure the scratched disc remains in the same condition as when you started.

Your second choice is to attempt to repair the CD DVD scratches by hand yourself.

There are many “do it yourself” websites and on-line videos that will show you how to use home products to repair scratched DVDs. You can use toothpaste, Brasso or even Pledge!

I guess the danger here is that if you get it wrong you most likely made things a whole lot worse than when you started! Naturally if you succeed… you look great!

I look at it this way: If you are the kind of person who can read instructions and follow them TO THE LETTER to get the desired result and also “conceptually” understand WHY it is done that way then you should be fine.

Even the slightest reservation means this is not how you should go!

The last way to effect a CD or DVD scratch repair is to use a CD DVD scratch repair machine.

If the software method or the “do it yourself” method haven’t worked then try this final way!

Unfortunately this subject is not a simple as it appears. CD DVD scratch repair devices must perform a pretty difficult job. All of them are attempting the re-surfacing of a polycarbonate surface well enough for a laser light to go through undisturbed.

There are lots of inexpensive CD DVD disc repair machines available thet really are a waste of your time and your money.

There are three levels of device determined by price and you get what you pay for.

This doesn’t mean you have to fork out over $1000 to buy an effective repair machine, but on the other hand obtaining perfect results from a $20 machine is not going to happen!

By far the most effective CD DVD disc repair machines for the home user come in at just over the $120 mark and for that price you can get a very good machine that will handle your discs well.