Refacing a CD-R 2

[perrymans]

I have a couple CD's from my computer before a rebuild. My daughter was nice enough to scratch off some of the WHITE LABEL on the top side (not the data side). I believe this white label was the reflective surface needed to read the CD. Now neither CD can be read, and all of my data is seemingly lost.

What can I do?

Keep in mind, I am not talking about scratches on the underside of the CD, but the top label (it's a cheap-o Memorex CD).

Thanks. Sean.

 

[cdogg]

There are many websites out there that talk about the different layers on a CD-R disc. Even though the reflective side needs to stay scratch-free, the top side (or label side) also needs to stay that way.

This is because most cheap-o CD-R discs don't add an extra coating between the data and the label. Without that extra coating, a small scratch on the label side can be more damaging than a small scratch on the reflective side.


~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[euston]

The signal (data) is burned (or pressed) into the underside of the label. Scratch it and the data is most likely kaput! It is occasionally possible to scratch the label and get away with it if the scratch is very light, runs at right angles to the tangent and if at least one Table Of Contents is intact. The underside can be scratched and the damage repaired by a polishing process but in that situation the data is not lost, merely hard to read. Circular scratches (along tracks) are much more damaging than ones across the tracks. CD error correction spreads data all around the disk so local damage can be corrected using Reed Solomon algorithms (no, I don't know how they work).

I'm sorry but I would imagine that your data is most likely a total loss.

If I wish to throw a data CD away, I always scratch the label first to ensure privacy.

 

[twertman68]

if you can see light through the scratches when you hold it up to a light source it is clearly damaged.