There are times when one is so desperate to get the data off a CD or DVD that you’re willing to try anything no matter how stupid it may be. This is exactly what happened to me last Sunday night.

For years I’ve heard that toothpaste will make a scratched optical disc readable again. I never believed it.

I’ve had in my possession a CD I burned 6 years ago that would fail on every attempt to have an optical drive read it, but kept it anyway in the hopes someday I could find a way to get it readable again. The disc was scratched slightly and I’ve definitely seen ones in much worse condition. In fact one time I was able to get a CD read that was cracked – although I wouldn’t recommend that because it can break apart in the drive and spread itty bits all over the place, ruining the the inside of the optical bay completely. That didn’t happen to me, but it could have.

As a last-ditch effort, I tried the toothpaste method because darn it, I want the f**king data off this disc, and if not it’s getting tossed. Six years is long enough to wait for anything. I smeared the paste so it completely covered the data side of the disc, let it dry for a few minutes, then washed it off thoroughly and dried with paper towels.

I expected this to do nothing but make the disc really clean and nothing else, thinking, "This will make a good article for PCMech because it will totally prove without a shadow of a doubt that this never works."

After the disc was completely dried, I popped it in the bay and waited a few seconds.

Nothing.

But the read pattern was slightly different compared to before (I could tell by the sound,) and the activity light was flickering rapidly.

Okay then.. I’ll just let it sit in the drive for a minute or two, then give up because I know this is going to fail again.

About 90 seconds later, Windows pops up a prompt asking me if I want to see the contents of the disc. What? This disc is now readable? No way!

Way.

I was surprised, elated, shocked and whatever other descriptive feeling you want to throw in there.

Not only did the disc read, but I was able to copy every single file off of it, at a numbingly slow speed, but it did work. No corrupted files, either!

HOWEVER..

I’m still not convinced it was the toothpaste that saved the disc. For all I know this could have been sheer dumb luck that the disc read this time and not all those other times.

Articles, some of which go back years like this one, claim toothpaste works on optical discs as a mild polish. What supposedly occurs is that when you polish enough, this will remove a tiny layer of plastic, fill in the areas caused by the scratches and make scratched optical discs readable again.

But I still don’t know if I buy that either.

What do you think? Was I just lucky or did the toothpaste actually work?

Optical media for computers is a form of technology that everybody uses at the present time, be it for storing data, playing games and so on.

Data on optical media can be a pain to work with at times, especially if the disc starts to wear down with age, or gets accidentally pitted or scratched. That being said, here are 5 utilities you should have.

1. nrg2iso

Site: http://www.roland-illig.de/lang.delphi.nrg2iso.html (there is an English version on that page, just scroll down)

NRG is Nero’s version of an ISO. Although the vast majority of optical disc images are ISO these days, you may run into an NRG periodically. Some disc image mounting/burning utilities will “understand” NRG but most don’t. In that case you need convert it to an ISO. nrg2iso does this easily and quickly. Works in nearly all versions of Windows, including Windows 7. Once you convert the NRG to an ISO you can easily burn it to a disc.

2. bin2iso

Site: http://www.weethet.nl/english/download.php (scroll down and the download link is there)

This is another disc image format you may run into that you can’t burn or mount – especially if the CUE file is missing from it. Bin2iso will take care of this in short order (even without the CUE file) and convert the BIN to an ISO file. This software is really old and 32-bit only, but it does work.

3. Daemon Tools / Virtual CloneDrive

Site (Daemon Tools): http://www.daemon-tools.cc/eng/home
Site (Virtual CloneDrive): http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html

When working with ISO disc images that you want data access to without burning them to disc, you mount them virtually as a drive letter.

If using Windows XP, the best tool for this is Daemon Tools. If using Vista or Windows 7, the best tool is Virtual CloneDrive.

Both are easy to use. With Daemon Tools you right-click its taskbar icon to mount ISOs as a drive letter. With Virtual CloneDrive you can right-click an ISO and mount, or simply double-click and ISO to do the same thing.

4. ImgBurn

Site: http://www.imgburn.com/

ImgBurn works on any Windows (from 95 all the way to 7) including all 64-bit editions! It also works under Linux in WINE easily as well. When you want to burn a disc image, you need not look any further than this. It always works, never fails, is light and additionally will build images as well.

5. Nero 9

Site: http://www.nero.com/enu/nero9-introduction.html

This is a paid title but worth it if you’re desperate to retrieve data off a damaged disc.

Let’s say you have a disc but it is very scratched and pitted. The disc on insert does spin up but on any attempt to read the data, it won’t work. You’ve tried over and over again copy the data off the disc but your optical drive absolutely won’t do it. You know your optical drive is fine, but the disc isn’t “playing nice” with you.

Nero Burning ROM (included with Nero 9) may be able to help.

What most optical software utilities do is try a set number of times to retrieve data off a disc at the fastest speed possible. After a few attempts it will give up, citing the disc as unreadable. Nero Burning ROM on the other hand will slow down the disc reading speed – even to below 1x if it has to – and copy any bits of data it can retrieve even if it can’t finish a full copy. During the process you will see Nero spit out a bunch of read errors, but that’s okay because it will keep going until it finds the next readable part of the disc, copy and continue as best it can.

For example, if there’s a document file on a disc that has a section of the data that’s completely corrupted from physical damage, Nero Burning ROM will copy it anyway. We’ll say the document is 50 pages long. The copy Nero creates may have corrupted data between pages 18 and 25, but at least you got something. And that’s better than nothing. That alone makes the software worth its price.

Nero 9 carries a hefty price tag of $70, and while the suite of apps you get is large, it’s the Burning ROM program that saves the day because it can mean the difference between getting data back or having it lost forever.

I’ve been in the self-publishing game for a few years now and can honestly say it’s come a long way, with the biggest advantage being that you can now get your book(s) on Amazon without the need for an ISBN.

The two major players for those who want to self-publish are Lulu and CreateSpace. Both of them are fairly straightforward in the way they work.

Bear in mind that both these services do much more than just book publishing. You can also publish DVDs, pay-for-file downloads (such as selling a PDF), audio CDs, audio downloads and more.

There are a few things you have to consider when either either of these:

You will be required to give personal information

When I say personal information, I mean full name, mailing address and social security number in addition to your email. Why all this info? It’s because all profits are reported to the IRS. If you do not operate a business, your tax ID is your social security number.

You may be required to give banking information

Both services allow payment by paper check (Lulu also has a PayPal option), but if you decide to go direct-deposit, you will have to provide banking information in order to receive money from any profits made.

You will have to have a better-than-average knowledge of word processing, DVD creating, etc.

Both services adhere to strict formats in order to ensure that books, DVDs and other media are published properly. Since you’re not going to physically see the product before it goes out, following the instructions is very important.

Fortunately, both services has excellent how-to documentation on how to format your stuff properly. Lulu, for example has ready-made downloadable templates for Word and OpenOffice concerning books in multiple formats (standard letter, A5, etc.)

Have you published your book, audio or video yet?

You should. Now that you can get this stuff on Amazon easily and have two great choices to choose from (or use both), there’s really no excuse.

The Amazon availability is the big deal here. Amazon is a huge site, successfully survived the dot-com crash years ago and has proven to be a stable marketplace for books and other types of media.

It’s out there waiting for you. Go make some money!

For those that have been reading my articles for some time (this is Rich, by the way, better known as "Not Dave"), I can’t stand optical discs. They’re slow to write, scratch easily, have inferior life span compared to USB sticks and the list goes on.

However the one thing I absolutely can’t argue with is that it currently is the absolute cheapest way to back up your stuff. Being the frugal guy I am, that’s why I use them.

The one thing I can’t stand more than optical discs are jewel cases. You know these as the "plastic case that always has the flap fall off at the hinge, rendering it useless."

I absolutely will not use jewel cases. Instead, I use paper sleeves and you should too.

Here’s why:

1. You can write on them with a regular pen.

Pen or pencil, actually. No labels required. No Sharpie marker required. Very convenient.

2. They stack easier.

Paper sleeves are, obviously, paper thin. So you can stack more of them at a time while still protecting the discs.

3. You can buy a lot more of them at any given time.

They come in 50-packs and stay in a nice tidy little box.

4. You don’t mind giving them away.

Situation: A friend comes over. You show him or her the latest version of some freeware you just downloaded and they want a copy. So you burn a copy on disc. The friend asks for a case to put the disc in. You have a few, but really don’t want to part with them because they’re so scarce.

With paper sleeves you simply don’t care. Pop in a sleeve, give to the friend with a smile because you’ve got a ton of them.

5. Cheap!

Self-explanatory.

Crafty tip: You can make your own paper sleeves. Impress your friends. See video below.

So yeah, if you’re just that cheap, you can grab a piece of paper out of your printer and make your sleeves that way.

As you have probably read many times on this site optical media (i.e. CD and DVDs), while reliable and cheap, doesn’t last forever. Because of this, it is a good idea to create copies of your optical media, particularly install CDs to your hard drive. The best choice for archiving these is to use ISO files.

In addition to having a backup you can burn to CD at any time, you can also install directly from the ISO file instead of having to dig for the original media.

One thing I do at work is create an ISO file of all our CD/DVDs and if there is a serial number you need to enter, I create a file named ’serial.txt’ and put in the appropriate information. I then create a zip file (using 7-Zip with maximum compression) of the two and store them. This allows me to distribute the program easily to offsite users without having to burn and mail CDs.

USB sticks are hitting rock bottom prices these days. A 16GB stick is now under $30. And 8GB sizes are easily available for under $15.

However this is nowhere near as cost effective as burning DVDs. In fact it’s not even close.

The 16GB stick is $30. Put into cost per gigabyte, each gig costs $1.88.

A 100-pack spindle of Maxell (a mid-grade brand) 16x DVD-Rs at Wal-Mart costs about $25 for +R or -R, tax included. That’s 470GB worth of storage, and translates to about 5¢ per GB.

Big difference.

DVD’s biggest advantage is cost; it’s the cheapest way to store data. I don’t know of any other media that’s as cost effective.

However the single largest drawback of optical media is its life span. Premium optical media is supposed to last 10 years, but few of us (including myself) don’t buy premium grade. We buy whatever is on the shelf that’s immediately available. The life of the disc gets knocked down quite a bit with mid-grade brands. At best you might get 5 years out of it. Some are lucky and get more, but most of us don’t.

My suggestion to anyone who backs up routinely (which you all should do): For the time being, go optical because there’s nothing cheaper. Buy yourself a 100-pack, crank up your DVD burner and burn away. When Flash drives drop below 25 cents per GB (meaning a 16GB stick would cost under $5), move your data over.

Given the way Flash media price is dropping like a brick, the 25-cent-per-GB mark should occur well before the life span of your optical media is up.

The days of linear format camcorders are dying. Linear as it relates to camcorders is anything using slack that requires rewinding or fast-forwarding. And to be honest I’m not sorry to see them go. This is more or less the last in line of tech products to get "off the slack", so to speak.

There are many of you out there who still have MiniDV videocassette format camcorders. Since day one I have always hated MiniDV. It’s not the cassette itself I hate, it’s the fact the decks in camcorders that use them are notoriously unreliable. This is partly due because of the cookie-cutter style method of manufacturing that goes into these things (even the expensive ones).

For those that remember VHS camcorders, those things were built like tanks and lasted a good long time. You could pop in and out VHS tapes to your heart’s content and it wouldn’t bust.

MiniDV on the other hand is something you have to treat gingerly. It’s almost as if you have to say a little prayer each time you load in a cassette. "Oh please, don’t break on me. Pretty please. I treat you well. You know I do." Your prayers won’t matter because your MiniDV camcorder can and will break at the worst possible time and is very subject to Murphy’s Law.

Fortunately it’s relatively cheap to ditch the slack, say buh-bye to MiniDV and go with non-linear flash, optical or hard disk camcorders.

For the vast majority of you that do non-pro video recording, a Flip will work. I personally have one of these things. The fact I can get 60 minutes of very decent quality record time on a unit powered by two AA batteries is nothing short of miraculous. Granted, the zoom feature sucks and it can’t do close-ups very well, but the convenience more than makes up for it. And it even has a tripod mount. Currently they sell for just under $130. And yes, you should get one. By the way, the USB port on it is built in.

"But I need better quality", you say. Then go with optical (or more specifically, the 8cm DVD disc format). For under $300 you can get yourself quite a nice Canon.

"But I hate discs", you say. Then go with hard-disk based units. These aren’t cheap. The lowest price is just a tick under $350. From there they spike over $600 easily. Do they have the super-awesome quality you’re looking for? Absolutely. It is for all intents and purposes a pro-grade unit.

Ditch your MiniDV and step into the modern age. It’s time.

Those of you out there into video, especially DVD authoring, looking for a program without breaking the bank on commercial options should check out the open source program DVDStyler.

DVDStyler is a cross-platform DVD authoring application that makes possible for video enthusiasts to create professional-looking DVDs.

While the feature list may not blow you away, the functions it performs are probably adequate for the majority of your DVD creation needs. The nice thing about this project is that it works on both Windows and Linux and is actively developed with updates released on a fairly regular basis.

Of course, if you do advanced DVD creation, going with a commericial package is probably a better fit, but for hobbyists and those looking to create a few small projects, DVDStyler is definitely worth a look.

Situation: You’ve decided that you’re going to build a new computer. You put your part list together (case, mainboard, RAM, hard drive, processor, etc.) and then come to the point where you have to purchase an optical drive.

Seems like a waste of money, doesn’t it?

On the Linux side of things, it has been proven that you can install a full version (meaning not "biz-card") of a Linux distro with absolutely no optical drive whatsoever.

In addition to that the vast majority of Linux apps are download-only territory, so there literally is no need for the optical at all. For backups you just plug in an external drive via USB or Firewire.

On the Windows side you are required to have an optical drive, but only for one thing – the installation of the Windows OS itself. However you could easily get away with using an external optical drive, install your OS then put the drive away until you need it (which will most likely be never).

For Windows gaming there are download options, the best (arguably) of which is Steam. No discs necessary and tons (and I mean tons) of really great games.

Also bear in mind there is a large push by the computer industry to "go cloud" as you’ve heard, such as with Windows Live applications. All that stuff is from the internet and no optical drive is necessary at any time.

On your next PC box build, could you go optical-less? Yes, absolutely. If doing it the Linux way, you don’t need the optical drive at all. If doing it the Windows way, all you need is an external to get the OS install out of the way and that’s that.

And what to do with that empty bay? You’d be better off putting in a card reader where the optical would otherwise go. You’ll probably get more use out of it than you would with the optical.

You may have a disc, be it music or data, that is scratched and will not read in your optical disc drive no matter what you do to it. Can it be saved?

Possibly. There are a few things you can try to save that disc.

Hardware method: It could be just the drive you’re using

If the disc won’t read in your optical drive, try another one that’s close by. If you don’t have one to spare, try a friend’s computer.

Interesting side note: Older optical drives with slower read speeds have a much higher chance of reading a maybe/maybe-not bad disc than newer drives do because they don’t spin up as fast. Being that laptop optical drives are typically slower, if you have a laptop with a CD/DVD drive, try that. You might be successful.

Software method: Using Nero Burning ROM to attempt a super-slow-read copy

Nero Burning ROM (paid application) has been around a long time and is arguably one of the best disc copying software utilities ever made – if not the best.

If the disc you have will spin up but will not read, Nero might be able to save it or at least at a good chunk of it.

When you copy a disc using Nero Burning ROM (part of the Nero 9 suite), it will first try to copy at the maximum speed possible. When it runs into a part of the disc it can’t read properly, Nero will purposely slow down the drive (all the way to 1x if necessary) and try every single possible way to read the data. If it can’t read the data, it will skip that part and go to the next readable portion and move on.

The disc copy make take a really long time – but you might be able to save whatever was on the disc or at least a good portion of it. If it’s just a portion, better to have something than nothing, right?

I have saved discs with Nero Burning ROM that no other app was able to copy, so I can attest that yes, it does work when all others fail. And if Nero fails.. well.. try washing the disc first (see below).

Physically doing something to the disc: Washing it first

CDs and DVDs are made of two things, aluminum and plastic. The outside shell is plastic, the shiny part is the aluminum. The part that is scratched is the plastic.

Plastic can be washed with just about anything, but the goal is to not scratch it any further.

Paper towels and non-scented ammonia-free glass cleaner (like Windex) do work. Why paper towels and not tissue paper? Because tissue paper is an abrasive and will scratch the plastic surface even worse.

Tip on cleaner used: Do not use anything labeled as a degreaser (like Formula 409). "Straight" glass cleaner is what you want.

Tip on paper towels used: Unscented, plain, no patterns such as Bounty or Brawn.

(Incidentally this is the same reason you never clean eyeglasses with tissue paper because it will scratch those up over time as well.)

Can you read a disc that is physically cracked?

Example: You leave a disc on the couch and forget about it. Later on you go to sit on the couch and watch TV, then…

CRACK!

Uh-oh. You sat on the disc. Very cracked but still together.

Is the disc still readable? Believe it or not, yes – or at least with CDs. A CD which has an "outside in" straight crack in it (from the outer edge to inner edge but not to the center) can be read as long as it’s even with the rest of the disc. However there is the possibility the disc might shatter when in the optical drive. Chances are this probably won’t happen – but it might.

DVDs when cracked usually cannot be read at all. If this happens to you, toss the disc out because there’s not anything you can do about that.

Tip to avoid this scenario: Don’t sit or step on discs (duh).

[Cracked CD photo by hermanturnip]

Situation: You’ve carefully backed up some sensitive data to CD or DVD. Afterwards you took the extra step of placing the disc in a standard jewel case instead of a fold-out case. You even took the extra precaution of putting the disc in that case in a room where the ambient temperature is never too cold or too hot.

Less than one year later you open that jewel case to retrieve some data off the disc and see spots and blotches on the data side. The disc is unreadable. You took all the precautions in the world so what happened?

What happened is that the disc became oxidized. The aluminum separated from the plastic which is why you see those spots and blotches.

All the precautions you take will be for naught if you use cheap media because yes, that 50-pack of discs you bought on sale was discounted for a reason: poor manufacturing. And yes, they can oxidize in less than a year.

Well-manufactured discs – assuming they’re stored properly – usually have a shelf life of about 5 years. Premium discs can last as long as 10.

Want quality and reliability? Go for the blue and gold.

How do you know a good disc from a bad one? Its data-side color. The ones with a blue or gold data-side are far superior to those that are silver-colored.

Brand name does count

Best: Taiyo Yuden premium media. Very expensive. Totally worth it.

Good: Verbatim and TDK make above-average discs.

Middle-of-the-road: Memorex, Maxell, Fujifilm

Bad: Sony and any store-branded disc.

The one most people will pay attention to is Sony. Yes, Sony makes crap optical media and always has. This is why it’s always available and always on sale.

Have you ever received a disc from a friend and it won’t read in your CD/DVD drive? It was probably on Sony media.

Have you ever wanted to convert your DVD library to files you can play on your computer, but don’t want to worry about having to find the right program? If so, make sure to give HandBrake a download.

HandBrake is an open source program which converts DVD videos to MPEG-4 files (among other formats such as AVI). HandBrake works on Windows, Linux and Mac so no matter what your OS of choice is, you can run it. You can view screenshots of HandBrake here. The only issue you may have is with some copy protection on DVDs which might require external programs to decode.

So if you are looking to build your DVD library on your computer, then HandBrake can be a great way to get your discs converting.