CD Scratch Repairing Kits

[Teasing the Korean]

I have a few CDs that have gotten scratched and that are, for practical purposes, irreplaceable.

Anyone have any experience with these kits? Do they work or are they a gimmick?

[jeffcrom]

I haven't had very good results with the one I bought - can't remember the brand right now. CDs that didn't play before treatment still didn't play afterwards.

[jostber]

I got one that looks much like the Aleratec on this site:

http://mp3.about.com/od/musiclibrarymaintenance/tp/best-cd-dvd-repair-kits.htm

It works pretty nicely, and I have repaired some scratchy CDs with it. With some CDs you might have to try some times before it works. It also washes dirty CDs.

[Hardbopjazz]

You may want to ask your local library what they use. With CDs and DVDs being loaned out all the time, they are using something to remove scratches.

[Teasing the Korean]

That Aleratec looks pretty good. I may check it out. Thanks.

[Quincy]

Or try a little toothpaste. It's worked for me.

[medjuck]

I've used a cheapo one and it worked. You could see on the disc that it had been doctored but they sounded fine.

[Dave Garrett]

Do the scratches affect play? If not, I'd leave them alone. If so, I'd avoid the cheap kits, which probably won't do anything except fill up the playing surface with cloudy swirls.

What you need is someone that has one of the professional-grade resurfacing machines. I've never used them, but I've heard good things about Azuradisc's mail-in service. Supposedly they've got a pretty good success rate at making discs look almost like-new.