Scratches on DVD causing read error. Any work arounds?

[lizardfish]

I’m trying to backup an old dvd that I own that has a lot of scratches. It plays just fine in a dvd player, but when I try and use DVD Decrypter I get a ton of read errors and it seems to hang at about 35%. I’ve been able to pull all of the files off of the dvd except for one file. When I try and copy this file directly to my harddrive I get the standard data error. I’ve even cleaned the dvd to remove any dust and still same problem. Is there a way to get this one file to my HHD? Another program perhaps? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated?

[painkiller]

http://www.arrowkey.com

[MOVIEGEEK]

DVDDecrypter->Tools->Settings->Device tab,enable Fast Error Skip->I/O tab,enable Ignore Read Errors.

[shadomic hedgehog]

You can try to use windex to clean your DVD, I was making some isos from a set of discs i had, they were the worst discs i had ever seen. Huge scratches, all over them. I spraed windex on them and rubbed it with paper towel, removed all the errors.

[brokenback]

just be careful what you spray on disc's.

I had the misfortune to craze the plastic so bad, on disc's i cleaned with metho, they became christmas tree decorations! Useless!

[dcsos]

you might want to also watch this poorly titled thread active now at
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=705923

[Trailryder]

I use an auto paste wax on my CDs and DVDs to buff out the scratches enough so they'll read. Havn't had one yet that it didn't work on.

[John]

Tooth paste , just put a blob on your finger and rub it jently into the disk then rince with water, i laughed when i herd this but it does work

[tweedledee]

I have not tried this, but it seems as if it may help.

DVDXRESCUE

http://www.dvd-burner.ca/DVD-X-Rescue.html

[/quote]

[lizardfish]

I just think the disk is hosed. There is one really deep scratch. Nothing I try seems to work. Thanks to everyone for their help.

[SaSi]

Tooth paste , just put a blob on your finger and rub it jently into the disk then rince with water, i laughed when i herd this but it does work

I have suggested toothpaste (the white old-fashioned one not gel) in the past and am using it for moderate scratches. Both on CDs and DVDs. But it only works with minor scratches.

White toothpaste is a very-very mild equivalent of car polishing paste. For deep and long scratches you need car paste.

A cotton slub must be used to rub the surface over the scratch. Gently at first and in circular motion. Rinse it with cool water and wipe dry. Retry after that. If it improves readability, you're on the right track. Repeate with a bit more force in scrubbing.

I have found a badly scratched disk that could not be repaired this way. Apparently it needed better scrubbing. I took a large slub of cotton and my battery powered power screwdriver, covered the screw-bit tip with some cotton and made a huge power driven "ear cleaner". Used that to apply continous scrubbing on the surface. Don't tip the screwdriver with the nose, but apply pressure on the disk surface with the nose in horizontal alligmnent. This will avoid any damage on the disk. After 5 minutes of cleaning, the disk was not yet perfect but DVDDecrypter could succesfully rip it with several retries.

Another tip: The scrubbing must have a direction from the center of the disk to the outer perimeter. If you scrub along the circle of the tracks you don't succeed as the scratch is preserved.

[SaSi]

And another tip that was given to me but I have not personally verified:

For REALL deep scratches, clean the disk as before and apply a little drop of transparent nail enamel over the deep scratch. Allow it to dry (takes something like half an hour). After that, redo the car-polish paste scrubbing to achieve a flat shiny surface. It should work.

Caveats: If you apply too much enamel, it's very difficult to remove it after that.

Don't use this method unless all other attempts have failed. I personally don't plan to use it unless I personally get stuck with such a badly scratched disk.

Tip: You may want to use it with a DVDR that you don't really need. Scratch it badly and try to fix it. If it works then try it on the problem disk. I may try this as well.