Scratched SCD = Worthless?

[EmperorIng]

To my dismay, my Magicoal CD refuses to load a gameplay chapter late into the game (more than 2/3 into it!). The laser struggles to read and eventually gives up. The game up to that point loads fine. There are numerous light scratches on the underside of the disc.

I eventually burned the game onto a blank CD and played through the chapter. Out of curiosity I tried the original CD for the next gameplay portion, and it was able to load just fine! It's just for that one segment of gameplay that the CD refuses to load.

It's disappointing that, as far as I can tell the disc is screwed on one part of a long game. I haven't tested the disc on Ootake to see if it's a system-issue.

On one hand, I am curious to here how anyone here deals most effectively with scratched CDs. My only experience in going to a place that cleans CDs is a retro shop in my hometown of Chicago - to say nothing of resurfacing discs, I don't know if the machine does it. It didn't solve my previous problems with other game systems' scratched discs so I am disinclined to use it. I tried the toothpaste trick once, and destroyed a game disc (good thing it was an ultra-common MGS1 disc). Do you have your methods? Or do you chalk it up as a loss?

On the other hand, while I bought the game from a japanese ebay seller, I tremendously doubt I can send it back (bought it months ago), let alone in good conscience sell the game with this problem. Unless it's for $5 with a blank(cough) CD packed in with it.

[Necromancer]

I've never needed it done, but many here have had good results with professional disc resurfacing.

I wouldn't bother if my copy had such problems, though, as my RX reads CDRs like a champ.  It ain't worth the money or effort just to avoid having to swap discs for one little part, especially for a game like Magicoal that's certainly fun but not really the type of game I'll be replaying regularly.

[choijimmy]

I bought a disc repair machine called "jfj easy pro" and never regret since then. The machine is so easy to use and able to repair a lot of heavily scratched discs. Of course, if the disc is heavily scratched, after resurface, you will still see some hairlines scratches but still 100 times better

[SignOfZeta]

If the scratch is on the top, you're f*cked.

If it's on the bottom then %99 of the time the pro machines will fix it. I'm talking about the ones that restore the finish, not the Disc Doctor or other ghetto machines that operate based on the idea that if you homogenize the defect across the entire disc then misreads won't occur as often. I have mixed feelings about those. I can't deny that they often work, but I also can't deny they make your disk look like it's been laying in the street.

[ginoscope]

Like Zeta said as long as the scratch is not on top you should be good.  I have gotten good deals buying scratched disc.  You can go ghetto and try toothpaste and peanut butter.  They both work really well to fix scratches.  I had a really beat up Ys III and Valis II and doing this fixed them.

I would probably go the professional route.  Usually places that sell used games or cds have these machines and will do the service for cheap.

[Enternal]

We have one of these machines at my work, cost us about 10,000 originally. Does 50 disc batches. I provide IT support for 13 library branches and our movie and music checkouts often come back damage or just need a rebuff after it passes through 50 different people.

RTI Eco Master




JFJ (Avoid using on expensive discs)

The JFJ runs 130 on amazon, while the lowest single disc Rti machne is 1600


A Rti can resurface some nasty scratches and make the disc look brand new. The only way you can really tell if its been resurfaced on one of these high end machines is to look for white polish paste residue that gets left behind sometimes or check the center ring. If a disc gets scratched up a lot usually the center ring does too and that does not get polished.

Most mom and pop game stores have the JFJ. I would recommend against using it. I visit a lot of game stores through out the year and I have yet to see a JFJ that leaves a disc looking new. While it can buff out scratches you still get very very light swirl marks.  Now this may be because people stretch the pad life and maybe a new set of pads will get it looking new, but I haven't seen it. I'm not trashing the JFJ, it can get non working games working again. But for anything expensive I would find a store with an eco master resurfacer and pay the 3-5 to get it looking new again. Our machine has a very light setting and we can resurface a disc many many times.

I don't know the average limit since the resurfacing machine is used by cataloging. But my friend in that department has said they have discs that have gone through more than a dozen times. That's another concern with the JFJ that multiple rebuffs will come out more and more uneven. I've actually bought a few dollar priced "pricey" games from JFJ owners that couldn't get them working and had them run through our eco master and they worked afterwards.

This is an example of one of the machines, is also just happens to be a sister store to a local store
here.


Damage such as see through pinholes, disc rot, flaking, or deep dents are unable to be resurfaced.

[NightWolve]

The el cheapo MacGuyver-esque solution is a power drill and a buffing wheel like this... The results vary though, you have to be very careful if you go that route... I used to use it on DVD rentals, but just enough so that I could get DVDecrypter to succeed in dumping it to disk and then reburn to DVD-R to watch with no skips. Worked many times, but I did have occasional failures/making-it-worse cases.

The pro machines used by DVD resell shops are amazing though, they can make a disc look pretty damn new that'll work reliably.