scratched cds
 

How many of us have encountered numberous scratched cds? Most of my cds I have purchased are used and/or out of print and forced to purchase what is available at the time. Even iTunes and Amazon don't have mp3s for most of these so called out of print. Searching over the web I have found toutorials of repairing scrathed cds by using such items as tooth paste, banannas, and even eggs. What method do you use? Of all the nearly thousand cds I have collected through out the years, I have only had to replace aproxmanly six cds. I know the other option would me only purchase mp3s, but as I mentioned, most of my music is out of print and not available in mp3.

I used to use the toothpaste method—and it works pretty well I have to say—but I can't remember the last time I bought a CD so it doesn't come up much for me these days.

Sometimes used CD stores having this little machine that puts a glossy finish on scratched CD's to make them work again, I would suggest asking around. Game stores also sometimes have them, so they're another place to try.

I worked briefly in a games shop and yes, the machine they have there does work well. It carefully removes the top layers of the underside of a disc until it's smooth.

I've always used toothpaste, which I believe just fills in the tiny cracks and allows it to run smoothly again. It's usually worked for me.

I also want to point out that I was recently listening to a particuler cd, on track #2 the cd stops playing. Although my player is actually a dvd player, it's connected to the cd outlet. However, if I play the same cd on my computer there is no problem. Even after trying the tooth paste method, the cd still gets stuck on track #2 at 1:06 on the dvd player. I know some cd players are very sensitive, maybe this can be the case. It gets me down that I'm worried that this can happen to my other cds. I hate to relace the cds-and there is no guarantee that replacing them that the newer purchased cd is going to work.

Toothpaste. But a more careful method (and I'm not talking **** here) is to take a green permanent marker and make the edges (around the center and around the whole disc) of your disc green.
It's very common amongst audiophiles to colour your discs that way. Somehow this causes the CD player to read less errors. For those of you who don't know; A CD player makes loads and loads of mistakes but it 'makes up' bits of music. If it can't make up music anymore, you'll hear a sharp 'tic!' or the CD will skip.
Anyway, when you have a perfectly good CD and colour the edges green, the CD will indeed sound better. Not on your laptop or on a all-in-one-stereo-set, but if you're pretty serious into audio, you will indeed hear the difference.
Using this philosophy, I once coloured the edges of a damaged Windows 2000 installation CD. And there you go, the PC could read the file.
Same goes with scratched CD's. It can just make that little bit of difference :).
If that doesn't work; Toothpaste.

Sounds like a good method. All CD's wear out over time. I've found that if I load a CD into itunes, and then re-burn it onto a new CD-- it fixes most of the skips, or at least it lets the CD play through without getting caught up.

Usually that means your CD player in your computer reads a bit better than the one you're using to play music.
Eitherway, you might want to try EAC (Exact Audio Copy).
I've never tried this, but I've heard it provides you with the possibility to read CD's reaaaalllyyy sllooowwwwlllyyy and rip them at the same time. This may help to prevent errors whilst reading.
Again: Haven't tried it out yet. I just heard it is possible

Yes, all cds do wear out in time. I have replaced my share of extra copies. I have occasionally been known to rip a copy of a cd to save 'wear-and-tear' from the original. I might as well face it, digital is the future for music if I agree with it or not, until something else replaces it. Digital I don't have to worry about scatches or skips. I'll still purchase cds for the liner notes that you don't get with digital.

Sounds kinda weird. This site has that down as a false urban legend.

link : Urban Legends Reference Pages: Music (Bewaring of the Green)