High Volume CD/DVD Cleaning Options? 57
WasteOfAmmo asks: "I help administer a small software library where users are allowed to borrow CD's for a few days to install various software packages (yes, it is all legal, futher explanation is not necessary). Obviously as the CD's are circulated more and more they become more and more scratched, 'dirty', and abused looking. Eventuallly (sometimes after 1 use) the CD's begin to have read errors. Currently once the CD's are confirmed as 'bad' they are destoryed and replaced (re-burned). This system is costly if not in material then in time. I have been searching with little or no success for a commercial or mid to high volume (5 - 20 disks per day) system for cleaning/polishing/repairing (ie: removal of small scratches) CD's. I have read all about various cleaners (including toothpaste) and kits that can be used but in all cases the procedure is time intensive, typically targeted at low volume end users, and with dubious claims of success at best. What I am looking for a system that would work similar to a video tape rewinder: you pop the CD into it, hit a button, walk away; Sometime later you come back and presto you have a freshly cleaned CD. With all the libraries, video rental, and software 'collections' out there must be a better system then 'hand washing' each CD."
Re:An ounce of prevention (Score:3, Informative)
If you have found some hairspray brand which dries with a hard enough surface to protect the clear plastic surface of the CD, is transparent enough not to cause read errors, and doesn't attract/stick dirt any worse than they already do, please let us know. Otherwise I'll keep the Aquanet in the medicine cabinet and stick to my GameDoctor and Novus thank-you-very-much....
Re:An ounce of prevention (Score:2)
Game Doctor (Score:4, Informative)
Definately worth an investment to check out, at the very least. I haven't come across a disk it hasn't been able to save yet.
Re:Game Doctor Links (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.digitalinnovations.com
Mail: sales@digitalinnovations.com
Phone: 1-888-SMART-58
HTH. HAND.
Re:Game Doctor (Score:3, Informative)
I'm surprised that you haven't had trouble with it. Care to tell everyone the secret to making it not suck?
Re:Game Doctor (Score:4, Informative)
I think the primary cause of failures that I could see was people just not lubricating (ie: spraying on enough water to keep the thing moving smooth). If you grind on a dry or under-lubricated disk, you might as well be using #60 wet-dry sandpaper, and start saving up for your next CD/DVD.
Hell, it even works on DVDs for me... my kids managed to completely mangle my old Matrix dvd, to the point where my player would completely barf on it about the point where neo took the pills... a little Dr. on it and it doesn't even skip any more.
Maybe I got a good one, I dunno.
Re:Game Doctor (Score:2)
Re:Game Doctor (Score:1)
I have not tried it with and data CD-ROMs, as I tend to take better care of those.
Following the instructions properly (about using water to lubricate the polishing wheel) and buffing the polished disk with the white abrasive pad are both critical to success.
I wouldn't recommend it for volume work. It is manual labor, and your arm can get very tired after a few disks.
There are commercial disk-polishing and cleaning operations. In quantity of less than 100 disks per batch they were >$3 per disk though, so it would add up.
automatic cleaner (Score:1)
Re:automatic cleaner (Score:2, Insightful)
Go ask your local... (Score:2)
Re:Go ask your local... (Score:2)
otoh, at least one in 10 DVDs I get from them seems to have a media problem of one type or another.
Re:Go ask your local... (Score:1)
Do people use these discs as skates in their driveway?
At this point, I'm better off just buying a movie that I want to watch.
So, here's my question: do the "lens cleaners" you see for sale everywhere actually clean anything? Or are they just a rip-off?
Re:Go ask your local... (Score:1)
plastic polish (Score:3, Interesting)
I've tried to come up with a way of home-brew mechanizing the process, such as strapping a rag to a random-orbit sander. That worked of for all but medium-deep scratches, but wasn't much faster than doing it by hand.
And, of course, you could also threaten to penalize people for returning defective disks, which would make them more careful even if you don't enforce it (and think how nice everyone will think you are when you say, aw shucks you don't have to pay -- this time).
What about damage to the TOP side? (Score:5, Informative)
CDs have all the data pressed or burned on a very thin layer just beneath the surface of the TOP side of the disc. Scratch that layer, you're actually scraping bytes right off the disc, permanently.
Scratches on the bottom side of the disc, a layer that includes almost the entire thickness of the disc, are minor by comparison.
DVDs are much easier to fix by polishing, because the data layer is in the exact middle of the disc -- indeed even "single-sided" DVDs are two half-thickness discs glued together. Thus the data layer is shielded from both directions, and it's much harder to permanently zarch a DVD.
- Peter
Re:What about damage to the TOP side? (Score:1)
If you buy locally, and look really closely, you can usually see well enough into the package to avoid the crappy ones.
Mail-order you takes your chances!
(Or buy a brand/series you already know is good).
Re:What about damage to the TOP side? (Score:2, Informative)
It's DVDs that have the same thickness of plastic on both sides, as my original post said.
It is true, though, that some CD-R manufacturers paint on a stronger anti-scratch coating, making it harder to scratch off the reflective coating.
Re:What about damage to the TOP side? (Score:1)
The good CDR's do have a top layer of plastic under the decal forming a plastic "sandwich" around the media.
The only way to tell is to look at the edge of the CDR. The good ones have a seam where the plastic layers are fused together. The cheap ones have no seam and it's obvious that they are slightly thinner when compared to a good one.
Re:What about damage to the TOP side? (Score:1)
CD-Rs on the other hand have non-pitted polycarbonate layers and the "pits" are burned in a chemical dye layer between the polycarbonate and reflective layer (with the top most layer being the thin lacquer).
Ask Google & 3 Clicks Later... (Score:5, Informative)
Valley Compact Disc Repair Inc. introduces the world's first and only fully automatic CD repair machine. The only machine available designed for performing CD repair as a business. The Disc-Go-Mech can repair up to 100 heavily damaged CD's per hour, unmanned!
Re:Ask Google & 3 Clicks Later... (Score:1)
How about some protective sheets? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How about some protective sheets? (Score:1)
To that end, these scratchless CDRs [scratchlessdisc.com] look promising. They have small bumps around the edges to raise the disc off whatever flat surface the careless user puts them on, to reduce the change of scratching the disc. A 40 pack is only 25 bucks. Sure, standard CDRs are cheaper, but if it reduces the number of discs you have to burn, it's probably we'll worth the extra expense.
Re:How about some protective sheets? (Score:1)
I know many of our drives would get trashed with those bumps. Mine's already humming on uneven discs.
Re:How about some protective sheets? (Score:1)
Just sell the CDs. (Score:5, Interesting)
YES, JUST SELL THEM! (Score:2)
Re:"all legal, futher explanation is not necessary (Score:1)
He didn't elaborate at all. How is he supposed to elaborate further?
Do not actually try this... (Score:3, Interesting)
Or for really high volume... (Score:2)
Re:Do not actually try this... (Score:2)
Re:Do not actually try this... (Score:2)
Explanation? (Score:1)
Re:Explanation? (Score:3, Informative)
He probably works in a college library at a school that has a Microsoft Campus License. Those licenses are almost always implemented by haveing the library sign out CD copies. The school I went to had this program, and the disks got trashed all the time. We probably spend a couple of hundred dollars a semester replacing the disks.
Anyway, I believe he's telling the truth about it being legit. What he's trying to do is probably a lost cause though. Best bet: Get a duplicating machine and make 50-100 copies of everything. Suck it up and waste a few hundred bucks on blanks.
Re:Explanation? (Score:3, Interesting)
It is the time involved with burning, lableling, filing, etc. replacement CD's that I am looking for a better solution for. So far burning replacements has been the way to go. I just figured with all the various legitimate reasons for circulating CD's and DVD's out there someone must have solved this problem already.
So far as the smell mentioned goes....have you check under your desk lately :-p
Re:Explanation? (Score:3, Informative)
It's called putting the CDs on the network. With the exception of an OS that needs to boot from a CD, the installs should work fine over the network.
That's how my school did/does it, and it worked just fine. If someone can't use the network for whatever reason, you can still check out the CD -- but 0.1% as often.
Re:Explanation? (Score:2)
I'm reasonably certain that's why the poster included that little disclaimer, and I counter that it's the accusers in this thread who are "jumping the gun", in that they don't appear to be informed about various site licensing options available to large organizations.
Avoid the CD's altogether. (Score:1, Informative)
CD Plastic Protectors (Score:2, Interesting)
Urine (Score:1, Funny)
What CD Media Are you Using? (Score:2)
Re:What CD Media Are you Using? (Score:1)
A semi automatic CD cleaner will solve most of the problems, better "scratch resistant" media more of them, and students that shower once in a while the rest. :-)
if your users are networked.... (Score:3, Interesting)
CD Servers are incredibly expensive - espescially if you need something that serves up more than 10 or 20 discs. A good solution that I've seen work very well is to use a large, RAID-5'ed array (RAID-1 if you can afford the time to re-build the library from scratch) of 250-500GB and another SEPERATE disk for your favorite distro of Linux. (Other *NIXes should work, but I've not worked with them enough to be 100% sure.)
'dd' the cd's to a
Of course if you are not networked, this is just an exercise in futility, but it sounds cool nonetheless!
Why not just do it manually? (Score:1)
Let the user pay (Score:2)