A lot of us by now have collected very big libraries of DVDs, game discs and CDs. As the discs get older and are used more often the possibility of damage increases as does need to effect repairs.

Many scratched DVD discs or other discs can simply be replaced at minimal cost and this holds true for CDs and game discs as well.

You can’t say the same about scratched discs that are of home videos and personal digital photos written to discs. Similarly you might have scratched DVDs or scratched CDs that are not on sale any longer.

The simple solution is to always make copies as a backup of those discs as soon as you buy them and before they get used and abused, but often we overlook this until it is too late!

So what can you do to recover the data from a scratched CD, game disc or DVD?

There are three main alternatives to deal with this problem.

The first and safest method is by using a software solution to the problem.

There are a number of specialist software products available that have DVD error correction capabilities built-in or have been specifically designed for this purpose.

Whether you are successful or not with this method depends on the degree of scratch damage the disc has sustained but it is the best because it doesn’t interfere with the surface.” It doesn’t matter if this works or not, your scratched disc has not changed in any way.

Your second choice is to attempt to repair the CD DVD scratches by hand yourself.

There are any number of “how to” sites and videos available that show you how to use various products you can find at home to fix scratched DVDs or games discs. You can use Pledge, toothpaste or even Brasso!

There is always the possible problem here of it going wrong in which case things are now worse than when you commenced! Of course if you get it right… you look like a genius!

I look at it this way: If you are the kind of person who can read instructions and follow them TO THE LETTER to get the desired result and also “conceptually” understand WHY it is done that way then you should be fine.

If you have any doubts at all then this one is not for you!

The last way to effect a CD or DVD scratch repair is to use a CD DVD scratch repair machine.

If the first method of using software or the second method of trying to do it yourself manually have failed then this is your last shot!

Unfortunately this subject is not a simple as it appears. CD DVD scratch repair devices must perform a pretty difficult job. All of them are attempting the re-surfacing of a polycarbonate surface well enough for a laser light to go through undisturbed.

There are many, many cheap CD DVD disc repair machines on the market today and the majority are a waste of time and money.

There are three tiers of machine separated by price range and the truth is that you get what you pay for.

This does not mean that the home user needs to spend $2000 to get a good machine, but it does mean that if you think you can get one for $20 and have it work flawlessly… you are dreaming!

By far the most effective CD DVD disc repair machines for the home user come in at just over the $120 mark and for that price you can get a very good machine that will handle your discs well.