How to repair a scratched CD for free

Got a CD that can't be read anymore or skips like crazy when you try to play it? If it's because it's all scratched up on the bottom, don't worry, there's a simple way to fix it.

Things You'll Need

• toothpaste
• paper towel
• water

Instructions

1. Take your scratched CD into the bathroom with some paper towel. Use soft paper towel that won't scratch it up worse. That brown, paper-like stuff in most public bathrooms won't work. Now, get out some fluoride toothpaste. Unless you have some weird type, most common toothpaste contains fluoride.

2. Now, put a little dab of toothpaste on the bottom of the CD. Use a little more than what you usually use to brush your teeth. Then spread it around with your finger. Make sure you cover the entire bottom in a thin layer of it. The fluoride particles will get stuck in the tiny scratches and make the CD drive skip right over them instead of getting stuck trying to read through them and correcting the data. All data on a CD is duplicated on other parts of it so blocking up one scratched area won't remove any data.

3. Now turn the faucet on just a little bit and wash the toothpaste off as well as you can. If there are stubborn areas, dab them with the paper towel. Once most of the visible toothpaste is gone, gently rub the CD bottom with the paper towel from the inside to the outside in a straight line. If you do it around in a circle, you risk damaging the CD worse. If the bottom of the CD looks cloudy, wet the paper towel and rub it some more.

4. Once it looks totally clear, the scratches will have been filled and your CD drive should have a much easier time trying to read it. I personally used this on my Starcraft install CD and one music CD and it was easily read afterwards.

5. If this still doesn't work, one extra technique I've found works great. Those cheap, home CD resurfacers don't work very well and the ones that do work cost well over $1000. But guess who has the top of the line expensive ones? Used game stores! So head over to a Preplayed, Mega Media Exchange, or possibly even a Gamestop because they have a professional one used for cleaning up people's traded in CDs. So bring it in and if you want to be really polite, buy something, and either way bring your scratched up CD to the counter and ask nicely if they'll run it through the machine. They really have no reason not to so they usually do and it will come out looking like the day you bought it.