Repairing Damaged Discs?

[EpheMeroN]

Has anyone ever been able to recover data off an old cd-r by cleaning it with something?

I have a 7 year old Memorex cd-r that has no visible scratches on it but neither of my 2 cd/dvd drives can read it.

[spuddog]

Try isobuster

[MACC]

Soft cloth such as camera lens tissue wipe from middle out so it does not scratch. I use my pinky finger very carfully.
Make an iso using any app that will read it. Some have trouble and some work. Don't know why. Then put that into isobuster and pull off the data from that iso.

[Inventive Software]

If it's a CD-R and it's not being read by 2 drives, that suggests that the dye on the disc is deforming. Maybe use a disc that has a longer life-span in future.

Can I throw something else into the mix? Is there any way to repair a disc (Unreal Tournament 2004 DVD) that has 2 noticable cracks coming out from the centre of the disc? AFAIK they don't interfere with the data, as they haven't got that far, yet. However, I don't particularly want to lose the disc just yet. I have tried making an image, and playing the game, but it throws a message back saying it needs the original disc. :(

[odrazil]

Soft cloth such as camera lens tissue wipe from middle out so it does not scratch.

A useful tip I picked up from the photography staff while working for a newspaper: coffee filters work just as well as camera lens-cleaning paper at a fraction of the cost. They both serve the same purpose -- not shedding fibers into your coffee/onto your lens. The specialized lens paper is typically a lighter weight, so it is still useful for crumpling/folding to get into corners and tight spaces.


Another thing the original poster might try rather than repairing the disc is to use an older, slower CD-ROM drive to read the disc. I keep an ancient NEC 2X drive for this purpose, as it almost always succeeds with discs which fail to initialize on newer (>=32X) drives.

[MuttLover]

If it's a CD-R and it's not being read by 2 drives, that suggests that the dye on the disc is deforming. Maybe use a disc that has a longer life-span in future.

Can I throw something else into the mix? Is there any way to repair a disc (Unreal Tournament 2004 DVD) that has 2 noticable cracks coming out from the centre of the disc? AFAIK they don't interfere with the data, as they haven't got that far, yet. However, I don't particularly want to lose the disc just yet. I have tried making an image, and playing the game, but it throws a message back saying it needs the original disc. :(

If I remember correctly, the latest patches to the game make the need for the disk being in the drive unnecessary. Try the latest patch at www.unrealtournament.com and you should be good to go (or my memory is shot ;-)

[feedback]

Has anyone ever been able to recover data off an old cd-r by cleaning it with something?

I have a 7 year old Memorex cd-r that has no visible scratches on it but neither of my 2 cd/dvd drives can read it.
As spuddog suggested, I would try IsoBuster. BTW, The free version works just fine. http://www.isobuster.com/

I personally have used it to recover and make a backup of previously scratched game CD's that my children scratched so badly they would no longer play.

Regards,

[MuttLover]

Another method I have read about is to use regular toothpaste and gently wipe from the center out, never in a circular fashion -- the mild abrasive in the toothpaste is said to help "repair" some pits/scratches. I would use this method as a last resort, personally...google for "cd repair" and I suppose you'll find more details on this method.