Make your scratched CD work for free!

[TechSupport420]

-Clean your CD's or DVD's for free!-
I'm sure someone has already figured this out but it is new to my knowledge. Instead of using an expensive DiskDoctor gizmo all you need is a yellow highlighter and some sort of cleaning solvent (I used Kensington's monitor cleaner). How effective this is for severely damaged CD's and DVD's I am not sure. For example: A game for my PS2 had lots of long scratches that weren't very deep but when played would either freeze up or would not be recognized at all. So here is what finally worked for me...
1. Fill the entire bottom side of the CD or DVD with your yellow Highliter especially over the scratches.
2. Wait to dry about 4 or 5 minutes
3. Rub in thoroughly with soft cloth (may stain fabric..duh)
4. spray cleaning solvent
5. Use clean soft cloth to wipe rest of highliter off
6. If successful the Highliter filled in the scratches and should be playable.
Good Luck!

[not important]

I had heard of that before but didn't know if it would actually work. Thanks for the tip!

[cdnref]

By cleaning Solvent u mean windex?

[bigandy]

Cool. Now I might be able to save some of my CD's :).

[HAL9000]

I've always used a very fine polish and lotsa elbow grease.

[cdnref]

Windex?

see above.

[reboot]

I just rub the cd gently with a WHITE wax candle, then get Hal to use his elbow grease to polish it ;)
The wax fills in most imperfections nicely, and when polished is transparent like the original plastic.
I have saved many cd's and dvd's that way.

[HAL9000]

Thats why my elbows are so sore.

[homer15]

i use toothpaste... it's abbrasive enough to polish down the lands just enough to be read again. you put the toothpaste on, and wipe it off with a softcloth. don't be too rough with it, though. smooth, gentle motions.

[TechSupport420]

I guess pretty much anything that can rub in, harden and stay in the scratch works as long as you give it some elbow grease.

Cdnref - I'm not sure about windex I can't see why it would hurt a CD, but I just used the Monitor cleaner because its made to clean smudges and junk off of sensitive electronics.

[cdnref]

okay thanks

[Penguin]

When you guys say rub, do you rub in circles around the CD, in and out from the center to the edge or any which way? I thought I head that oyu should always clean from the center out and never in circluar motion around the CD.

[gwsmyda]

Does the highliter have to be yellow? And does it work on CD-RW's and dvd-rw'S?

[Iman74]

Cover with highlighter, wait to dry for 4 to 5 minutes, and all of this over buying the DiskDoctor which I own and it works great, and that alone only takes about 2 minutes to do what you do in 10. Sometimes it's better to spend the money to make it easier.

[MulderMan]

im gonna burn a disk n scratch it, tell ya how it went in a bit ;)