Disc

Clean the disc. Even if a CD isn’t actually scratched or scuffed, dust, oil, and other surface contaminants can prevent it from playing properly. Thus cleaning the disc should always be your first move.

1. • Run warm water over the damaged disc to remove dust.
   • If there is stubborn dirt or grease on the disc, gently rub it with your finger while you are washing it, and use a gentle detergent or liquid soap (with the water) or rubbing alcohol (in place of water). Any time you rub or wipe a CD, you should do so by starting at or near the center of the disc and rubbing straight outward toward the edge to prevent further scratching.
   • Shake the water off and let the disc air-dry (do not dry it with a towel or cloth, and don't sun-dry it either).
2. 2 Try to play the disc. Many times a good cleaning is all that is needed. If, however, problems persist after cleaning, try to play the disc in a different CD player. Some players handle scratches better than others; computer CD drives and car stereos tend to be the best.
3. 3 Burn a new disc. If you can get the CD to work in one CD player - especially your computer’s - but not in others, try burning a new disc. The CD burner on your computer may be able to read the CD well enough to produce a perfect copy. You may wish to try this even if the CD doesn’t play correctly on the computer.
4. 4 Locate the scratch. Actually looking at the disc will be easier if you can figure out where the offending scratch is. Visually inspect the CD’s playing surface for scratches or scuffs. Scratches that run perpendicular to the CD’s spiral - that is, those that run generally from the center to the rim - may not affect playing at all, and in any case are generally less damaging than those that roughly follow the direction of the spiral. If there are several scratches, but the CD only skips in one or two places, you may be able to approximate the location of the offending scratches based on which track skips. The first track of a CD begins near the center, and the direction of play proceeds outward to the edge.
5. 5 Data Recovery. Many burning programs can be set to continue reading after getting an error (such as not being able to read a section due to a scratch). If the program can't read a section at all, it will fill it with random data. They can also try to read the bad section by reading at a very slow speed multiple times. For Windows, Nero does this; Linux has the Ddrescue tool. This can often fix damaged CD's, and is especially effective with audio CD's (where accuracy isn't as important). Also, this doesn't risk damaging the CD (like the following methods), so it is a good idea to try this before trying the more drastic methods. If they damage the disk, the data recovered by this method can still be used. Note that due to the slow reading, and multiple attempts at trying to read a damaged section, these programs can take a very long time to complete (a Windows XP disk recovered with this method took about 2 hours).
6. 6 Polish the CD. WARNING: this can damage the disk further! Use only as a last resort, and read the instructions carefully!! Though counter-intuitive, polishing a disc can repair a scratched CD by removing some of the outer plastic coating and thus making existing scratches shallower. A number of common household products can be used to polish the CD, but toothpaste — especially baking soda toothpaste — and Brasso are probably the most tried and true. You can also use a fine-grit polishing compound that's used for cars or hard finishes.
   • Apply a small amount of toothpaste (must be paste, not gel) or Brasso to a soft, clean, lint-free (old undershirt) cloth: an eyeglass-cleaning cloth works well.
   • Gently rub the cloth on the scratch or scuff in a radial motion, (start at the center and rub out to the edge, like spokes on a wheel). Do this 10 or 12 times all around the CD. Rubbing in a circular motion can cause small scratches that throw off the laser tracking system in the player. Try to focus your efforts solely on the scratch or scratches you’ve identified (if possible).
   • Polish in this manner for a couple of minutes, reapplying Brasso or toothpaste to the cloth as necessary. Be careful not to apply much pressure, although you will still be able to feel the cloth gently rubbing the CD as it polishes.
7. 7 Remove polishing product from disc. If you used toothpaste, rinse the disc thoroughly with warm water and let dry. Make sure to remove all of the toothpaste and let the disc dry completely before trying to play it. With Brasso, wipe off excess product and let the rest dry. Then, using a clean cloth, gently wipe disc again.
8. 8 Test the disc. If the problem persists, polish again for up to 15 minutes or until the scratch is almost completely buffed out. The surface around the scratch should begin to look shiny with many tiny scratches. If you still don’t notice any difference after polishing for a few minutes, the scratch may be extremely deep, or you may be polishing the wrong scratch.

Wax Method

1. 1 Wax the tracks. If polishing doesn’t work, apply a very thin coat of Vaseline, liquid car wax, neutral shoe polish, or furniture wax to the CD’s playing surface. Wipe excess off using clean, soft, lint-free cloth in a radial (inside to outside) motion. If using wax, follow manufacturer’s instructions (some need to dry before you wipe them off, while others should be wiped off while still wet).
2. 2 Test disc again. If the wax or Vaseline does the trick, burn a new copy of the CD immediately. The waxing method is only a temporary solution.

Light-bulb Method

1. 1 Turn on your desktop lamp, or any other lamp with a 60W incandescent filament bulb (DJs usually use the small lamp they use for finding their CD's). Hold the CD with your forefinger in the center opening and the recorded side towards the lamp. The distance from the bulb should be about 10 cm (4 in). Hold it there for about 20 seconds, rotating it slowly around your forefinger. Then, while it's still hot, play it in the CD drive (sometimes doesn't work).

 

Professional Refinish Method

1. 1 Have the CD professionally refinished. If the disc still doesn’t play correctly, bring it in to a music store (especially one that sells used CDs) or a DVD rental store and ask if they can repair the disc for you. Many of these businesses have CD refinishing machines that do a remarkable job, and they’ll probably charge you less than five dollars to repair the CD.
   • If you have a lot of discs to repair, you might want to buy a CD refinishing machine. These can cost as little as $25, but highly effective industrial machines cost anywhere from $300-6,000. You can search the internet for companies which build and market these.

Repair Foil Scratches 1 To determine if you have a scratch in your disc's foil, Hold it in clear view of a light, shiny side up, and look to see if there are any small areas of the disc that show signs of the foil missing. Flip the disc Logo side up, and mark where these ares are with a whiteboard marker pen. Get 2 small strips of masking tape, and lay them one on top of each other over the area you have just marked. The CD may run a little loudly, but it will more than 70% likely repair the little missing pieces of foil.