CD/DVD scratch remover....safe.....works? (1 Viewer)

[Vader]

I hope I have this posted in the right forum (mods please move it as appropriate)...

I recently found that my CD-ROM drive is leaving several light scratches around the edges of discs, and I am taking that to be a divine hint to upgrade to a DVD-ROM drive. The compromised discs seem to be playing fine, but I was wondering about the stuff from places like DiscWasher that claim to "fix" light scratches. Does anyone have any experience with these? Recommendations? Are they safe? Thanx in advance!

 

[Leo Kerr]

Here's my take on the disc-polishing business.

If it isn't causing any troubles, don't do anything to the disc!

I once used one of those disc polisher thingies (the kind with the big, squishy neon wheel) on one of those free test discs supplied by AOL, and was kind of horrified by what it did to the disc. I don't know if it would have helped scratches, but I can't see how completely 'clouding' the surface would help anything else. (I didn't check the disc before or after, however; this was purely a visual inspection.)

My theory is don't worry unless you have an actual problem. Then and only then should you even think about messing with the disc (beyond, of course, the spot cleaning of surface dirt.)

Leo Kerr

 

[Andy Goldstein]

i have one of the "neon wheel" cleaners. i loaned out a harry potter dvd and it came back scratched to the point that it "stuck" at one spot. so i used that as the excuse to buy a scratch remover. works great! i use it on rentals/library discs that show up looking like they were dragged on concrete for 20 feet or so. so far so good!

ag.

 

[Leo Kerr]

...hmm.. maybe I'll give it another shot on a library disc..

(seems like a lot of those cases loose one of the two clips, so the disc bounces around, getting torn up by the remaining one...)

Leo

 

[Mike Boniferro]

I picked up one of the neon wheel 'DVD Dr's' and I am pretty impressed. I only use it on discs that are causing problems, and on the ones that I get from video stores or 'zip.ca' (Canada's netflix). It does slightly leave the disc cloudy, but not too bad after you polish it off. I was really lazy and bought the motorized one

A lot of people freak out about the haze it leaves, but to me.. if the disc was toast when you started and it works after using that, then you are way ahead than if you were to throw the disc out!