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Scratched or Damaged CD-ROM? Unreadable File? All May Not Be Lost.
When CDs began to replace vinyl as the distribution medium of choice for music, we were told that the discs were virtually indestructible. You could, it was claimed, still play a disc that was badly scratched.
Needless to say, this turned out to be patently untrue. CDs are notoriously easy to damage. Which isn't a major problem if the disc in question contains a commercially-available music album, because you can simply buy another copy. But if the disc actually contains 650 MB of your precious computer data, Amazon is unlikely to have a duplicate in stock.
You may not be aware that there's a handful of excellent, free programs out there that will attempt to recover data from a damaged CD or DVD. The amount of information that can be retrieved will, of course, depend on the level of damage. But if you have recently pulled an old disc out of your cupboard and discovered, to your horror, that your PC won't read it, don't give up quite yet.
Our page at http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-cd-recovery-utility.htm contains more information, plus links to 2 programs that can help you, namely ISOBuster (http://www.smart-projects.net/cdrecovery.php) and CD Check (http://www.softwarepatch.com/software/cd-recovery.html). Yet another example is CD Recovery Toolbox (http://www.oemailrecovery.com/cd_recovery.html), which comes recommended by site user Levi Olorenshaw.
If there's a Hot Find that you can't wait to tell me about, see the form at http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/submit-product-review.htm.
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Comments
try toothpaste. It really works for me.
my game disk will not run i have to keep putting it in & out but when it does run it works like bran new & their is close to nothing wrong with it on the clear side but their is a very small crack on the center hole could that be the problem?
I've used pledge furniture polish on scratched CD's DVD's and even safety glasses. The wax in the polish fills in the scratches and makes the surface less hazy.
I've had good results with just a microfibre cloth rubbing radially, ie, from centre to rim. You can also use soap and water.
The sensitive side is the "label" side. Scratches there obliterate the data. But you can rub out scratches on the silvery/clear side without further damage.
tOM
This may have just come in handy as I just discovered a few days ago a CD that has a crack and when I play it it jumped over the spot. Will any of these program help at all. I will try them as the CD is not replaceable.. Urgh... thanks.
The first thing to do to a damaged CD is to try to remove some of the damage.
You can polish with toothpaste on a dampened rag or even something like metal polish wadding (do that at your own risk!).
Or a commercial scratch removal kit.
Get the thing as cleaned up as possible so that the recovery app can do it's work.
Toothpaste works for me sometimes. It reduces the chances of incorrect optical reading due to the uneven or scratched surface of the disks.
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