Have you got any CDs or DVDs that are scratched beyond readability? Fear not. Gather 'round and I shall tell you a tale.
I
recently bought a pre-owned copy of F1 2010 for my Xbox360 and for the
first few times it played flawlessly. Then the fourth or fifth time I
went to turn the console and and play the game it only read through the
first few preliminary windows - copyrights etc. The spindle motor died
down then an Xbox window came up saying that the disc was unreadable
and suggested I take it out and wipe it good with a cloth. Had a good
look at the disc then wiped it with a soft cloth time and time again without success
Then, when after taking the disc out and sitting down looking at
it still puzzled as to what went wrong it suddenly dawned on me. I
finally noticed the major bloody scrape that had somehow gone straight
around the circumference of the shiny side of the disc almost in a
perfect overlapping circle. I soon came up with a theory that since
discs are basically just clear perspex (or some other type of plastic)
in which the laser reads through to the information written into the
metallic sticker bonded to the other side, then my micro-mesh grits
3200 through 12,000 followed by buffing with Bare-metal (brand) canopy
polisher on a soft cloth should bring it back to readability.
Can't
believe how well it worked. Success the first time. The visual result
is far from perfect - there are now tens of thousands of tiny little
blemishes all over the disc but they prove to be small and forgiving enough for
the laser to read the information. Saved myself sixty bucks
Not entirely sure how the disc got scraped like that in the first place, but I'm pretty sure that while the disc was inside and spinning something (probably me
) must have knocked the console causing the disc to wobble and scrape against an internal component. Makes sense.
If you have any trashed discs I hope this works just as well for you.
At the end of the day one's work may be completed but one's education never!