I try to install a game that I have, quite old, so it can’t be found on torrent sites or at a used game store (I’ve looked, and I own the game, so downloading it isn’t illegal IMHO, just like using a no-cd patch).
I’ve heard about the dubious nature of toothpaste, but am quite wary of using it, since this is one of the few copies of the game (NHL 2004) and I don’t want to truly destroy it. I recently came across a tip that pledge works by filling the gaps in with the wax that it is, but sadly I lack pledge =(
I have an old cd-cleaning kit from a few years ago, but of course it has done nothing at all, after several tries.
I can copy over all of the files on the second CD, but one very large file on the first CD gets a read error. Any do-it-yourself fixes that have been proven effective?
I´ve tried the toothpaste trick once; it didn´t work I was left with a blurry disk surface and no ammount of buffing could get rid of it.
When I was reading the OP a light went on in my head “FUTURE”, Furutre floor polish actually. I use it as a substitute for dope on my model planes, but one of the uses I´ve seen it applied for was to remove scratches from plastic model canopies.
So now I´m trying it on a wrongly burned CD to see if I can remove the blurring left after buffing it with metal polish paste; so far it looks as it improves the surface quite a bit, however I don´t have a scratched disk I can test this on and see if it work.
You may want to give it a try, but just in case, on a disc you won´t mind to wreck.
I’ve fixed lots of CDs with car wax. It works great if the scratch isn’t so deep as to affect the media.
Use the softest rag you can find, so as not to leave any deep scratches (believe it or not, you may find that your bare thumb works even better than a rag. Try it and compare). Apply the wax in a “spoke” pattern, from the center toward the edge of the CD. This is important because any new scratches you create will then be perpendicular to the direction of the spin, and won’t confuse the CD reader. Allow the wax to dry, then remove the same way. Abracadabra! Plays like new!
Please don’t tell the record companies I told you about this - there’s a lot of money at stake here, and I’d hate to have a hitman sent after me.
Be very careful when polishing the front of the CD that you dn’t scratch any of the backing from it, as this is what actually carries the data.
Scrubbing the front means that you might lay it down on something and end up doing the backing material in.
One thing you might want to search for on the net would be ‘cd resurfacing’. There are companies out there that can professionally restore a CD that’s been scratched or damaged.
It’s usually not too expensive ($5-$10). I haven’t had it done myself, however, so I can’t give any recommendations.
