How to Clean Pre-owned Discs?

[RPGer]

Hi,

I just purchased a few pre-owned games and wanted to know what is the best way to clean them? They vary from scratched to just having dirty marks or finger prints. Can anyone shed some light on how to clean it, or provide me with a helpful link with more information on cleaning. 

[goofers]

Get one of them lenses cloth (scab from an optometrist or buy from dealextreme.com) and wipe from the centre to the outside in straight lines (like the sun!). At least thats what I do.

[Angel]

Whatever you do, do NOT

a) use a tissue
b) wipe in the direction of the track spins
c) use conventional household cleaning solvents

As to the scratch, there's nothing much you can do about that - most market products are snake oil. As long as the tracks aren't damaged (too much) the CRC redundancies will allow the console/PC OS to reconstruct the data.

A standard microfibre cloth will usually work for cleaning oil from the discs.

[CHWong]

If you're not confident fixing it yourself, JB Hi-Fi offers a disc clean/scratch removal service for $3 per disc.

[Sinali]

I've been interested in finding out too. I read on a few websites that you can use toothpaste for scratches.... DON'T DO IT! it leaves more tiny scratches (who would have thought).
Has anyone used JB's scratch removal service?.... Is it any good?

[HeDanny]

I just put a few drops of Windex on a paper towel.  Been doing that since my first CD player back in 89 or so.  Never had any issues with it.  Seems to work quite well.  Its not SUPPOSED to work, as Windex contains solvents which everyone says (rightly so) is a big No No.  Only reason I do it is I was doing it for years before I found out it was dangerous, and it worked.. so.. I stuck with that I knew worked.

I have actually used Insanely fine grit sandpaper to Raise Dead disks that were horrendously tortured and scratched to death by previous owners.  I absolutely do NOT recommend this.  The only reason I attempted it was it was a last resort.  Also, that level of paper is so rare and expensive if its a store bought disk it would almost certainly be cheeper to buy a new disk than the paper!

[DefoliateCoffee]

Go to big w and get yourself a cleaning kit for about $8, then you should be all set.

[RPGer]

Wow thank you to everyone for all the great tips, I really appreciate it. I usually buy new games or maintain my discs really well so have never had a need to clean them before (been playing games since Atari days)

Feel like a bit of a noob to ask but after googling and watching youtube videos with people using peanut butter and toothpaste, as well as other weird mixtures I thought maybe the best people to ask would be other gamers in my situation 

I'm glad I asked before I started to do anything drastic 

[RPGer]

Has anyone used JB's scratch removal service?.... Is it any good?

I'm also curious about this. I was at JB and asked them what it is that the service does. He said that essentially it removes a very fine layer from the disc read surface which takes away the scratches, but I haven't taken a disc in to try yet. Maybe what I'll do is find a disc that is pretty scratched that I have and take a before and after picture so you guys can see what it does.

If anyone has actually used this service could you please let me know if you recommend it or not. Thanks =]

[Dunnymeister]

I've used a similar service at our DVD rental store before selling some CDs on Ebay.

I can't show comparison photos as I don't have the discs anymore, but I can say that for discs with shallow scratches or scuffs it works a charm. The disc comes out looking near-new, and plays like it as well.

As for ones with deeper scratches... The deep scratch remained, but it did fix up my skipping issue. So the CD became functional again at least, and I was given a discount for them not being able to remove the scratch.

So my experience with them has been pretty good

[Fuzz]

Gametraders Highpoint has an awesome machine that repairs discs back to brand new again. Unless their is a gauge in it. I think they charge a couple of dollars if they can get it to work. But im sure if you bring in a few they'll work out a deal for you.