It will rather be a story with elements of a guide to recovering a disk from your own experience.
So, recently my friend bought himself Xbox 360 along with the bundle Gears Of War 2, and for our hinterland this is a very worthy and difficult to find game. Therefore, I immediately suggested to him that I would give him 3 of my games, and he would give me his Gears Of War 2. All agreed perfectly. The next day I decided to call him, but his answer did not please me at all, namely, yesterday he decided to play it, but without playing it, he pulled out the disc for an hour and it turned out to be scratched in two places. I already knew that there are such cases with such a bundle and that we are not the first such ones, I partially fell into the sediment, because. I got it, you can say such a hard-to-reach and popular game, and here it is.
Therefore, knowing that M Video you can’t prove anything that it’s not our fault, but the arguments that it’s not the first, and that there are such problems with this bundle will not give them anything, because our M-Video is poorly developed in terms of consoles, tk. with the same purchase Xbox 360, sometimes you have to tell them what goes where in the package.
So to the point, we have Gears Of War 2 Bundle Copy, by the way, who does not know what such a version is, here you go:
As seen Microsoft I even decided to save on paints =). AT this moment I can’t show you the same scratches. I am writing the article after restoration, but visually they were scratches of medium depth in two zones of the disk, and there were several scratches in each zone. The zones were located on the last tracks of the disc, i.e. not at the center.
When inserting a disc into Xbox 360, he immediately could not recognize the disk, i.e. Xbox 360 diligently drove the head for 15 seconds, and it was loud, it was even alarming, after which, the Reading inscription changed to the inscription Start the game, but without the game icon, and from that moment it began to overclock the disk, as is usually the case at startup, but in As a result, it similarly slowed down again and completely stopped, when you clicked Start the game, the screen went out, but soon a window popped up with the inscription something like, the disk is dirty, wipe it with a cloth, etc.
As a result, we have an absolutely unreadable and unrecognizable disk. Let's start healing!
Many of you have many ways, from the most crazy ones, to support it in the cold, or to press it down with a lot of weight, also lubricate it with glycerin, etc., but there is another option, the so-called grandfather, is to polish it with toothpaste, and I am now ready to confirm , this is not a joke, toothpaste is the best and most effective method of recovery at home, no matter what kind of paste.
What causes the disc to be unreadable is damage to the transparent layer of the disc, i.e. its structure is violated, and, accordingly, the passage of the laser through it. i.e. the beam gets knocked out due to the roughness of the surface, so we need to make it even and reflective as much as possible.
What you need: any toothpaste (in my case, domestic 32 Norm, there was no other, don’t take it as advertising =)), and two rags, not hard (I just used 2 handkerchiefs).
Now we go to the bathroom, closer to the tap means. put something very soft on some flat surface, you can even use a towel or a rag, BUT it must be clean, i.e. without any hard crumbs, sand, etc. small but hard particles. And we put our disk on it, face down, scratches up, and put a little toothpaste on top.
Then we begin to rub it in a circular motion with another clean rag (handkerchief),
after rubbing for a minute, your toothpaste will begin to dry out, but we don’t need this because. dried up will only make it worse.
Therefore, we take the disc and completely rinse it under hot water, or simply moisten it lightly with water, after which we repeat the whole procedure.
The first time I did it, I spent 10 minutes on all this, after which I dried it and decided to try it, but the disk was not readable for me, ALTHOUGH it was determined faster, i.e. reached the item Start the game, then I decided to try again and already did the procedures for 20-30 minutes.
And from that moment I made the most major mistake. I was in a hurry and didn’t check the rag to see if it was already covered in dried paste or what fell on it, as a result there were solid particles on it, and then you probably already understood what happened, it’s comparable to taking some sand, throwing it on the hood of a car and starting wipe the car with a rag, as a result of which the reverse MOST IMPORTANT AND BEARING SIDE of the DISC with the picture was covered with a few small scratches, THROUGH, i.e. transparent, it was already 100% known that the disk was completely damaged, but I found out about it only after I finished this procedure. :"(
But otherwise, in the end, the disk immediately became clear to the eye that it turned out to be cleaner, those scratches are now much less visible, and as if nothing had happened, although now the disk has become covered with very small but everywhere scratches, but they are not scary;), even add as a result, the disc began to have a painfully pleasant smell of mint =). At that time, I already knew that everything was useless, but still decided to insert it into the Xbox 360, when I inserted the Xbox 360 I INSTANTLY determined it, I decided to try (from doing nothing and to completely finish myself off) copy it to the hard drive, the disk accelerated as if only from the assembly line, but I knew that it would soon rise sharply, and it happened, it stood up sharply by 43%, and gave a message that the disk was damaged.
Therefore, be careful, and do not be too lazy to wash the rag once again, or change it.
But if, nevertheless, this somehow happened to you, or the disk is not readable, BUT which game is still determined, i.e. there is a way out.
We just need to find somewhere the same game, from a friend or someone else, literally for an hour, take another, insert it into our Xbox 360 and install it on the hard drive, then give this disk to the owner, and insert our scratched one, and indicate that the game from the hard drive, because when copying, the Xbox 360 does not copy the disc ID, it serial number etc., it turns out it does not compare at startup, but whether it was copied from the disk to the hard drive. This is how I currently play Gears of War 2
That's all, good luck!
Despite the fact that the discs are extremely reliable and resistant, it is almost impossible to avoid the periodic appearance of scratches and scuffs on them. This corruption could end up missing your favorite music track, or in the case of a data disc, losing a datasheet you've been working on for two weeks. Do not despair, there is a chance to fix the disk. There are commercial scratch repair kits and machines for repairing damaged discs (which are definitely worth a look if you deal with scratched discs all the time), but you may be able to fix everything at home.
First of all, clean your disk. Even if the disc isn't actually scratched or scuffed, or the scratches aren't causing a readability problem, dust, grease, and other surface dirt could be. So in any case, cleaning is the first step.
Use a commercially available set of non-abrasive cloth and special disc cleaning fluid, or:
If you find stubborn dirt or fingerprints on the surface, rub the area very gently with your fingers (not nails!; but it is better to buy a special non-abrasive cloth for discs) or even use liquid soap (with water); or use rubbing alcohol instead of water. Whenever you rub or wipe a disc, start at the center of the disc and work straight up towards the edge to avoid new scratches.
- Shake the disc to remove any water droplets and allow the disc to air dry (do not wipe the disc with a towel or tissue).
Try to count the disk. If it doesn't work - try counting on other equipment: some players cope with scratches better than others; in this case, computer CD / DVD drives and car stereos are optimal. If you can read it on a computer, immediately make a copy of the disc.
Those that run from the center to the edge of the disc, perpendicular to the circular spirals, may not have any effect on readability at all. Dangerous are those that go in the direction of the disk spirals. It is they who are responsible for the loss of many consecutive bits of data, due to which the algorithm of data recovery programs may not be able to cope with the task.
If there are several scratches, but the disc does not read / skips only some files / tracks, you can probably figure out which specific scratches are causing problems. The first track on a music disc starts near the center of the disc and the direction of play is outward towards the edge of the disc.
Many disc burning programs can be set to continue reading after an error is detected (such as when the data cannot be read due to a scratch). If the program is unable to read the data at all, it will fill it with random information. Also, the program may try to read the damaged section many times at a very low speed. Plus, this technique does not carry the risk of damaging the drive even more, so before trying anything else, first use the program (but even if you later damage the drive even more, this method can still be applied) .
For Windows, try Nero in this case; for Linux - Ddrescue. These programs often do the job well, and they are especially effective with audio CDs (where accuracy is less important). Remember that due to long reading and numerous attempts to read the damaged section, these programs may take a long time to work (in Windows XP, disk recovery takes about 2 hours).
Disc polishing
WARNING: THIS CAN DAMAGE THE DISK EVEN MORE! USE THIS METHOD ONLY AS A LAST REMEDY AND READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY!
Despite the seemingly counterintuitive action, polishing a disc can remove scratches by removing the outer plastic coating and, thanks to this, making the existing scratches not so deep. A number of household products can be used for polishing, but toothpaste (especially baking soda-based paste) and Brasso polish are the most commonly used and effective products. You can also use fine-grained polishing compounds, which are used for cars or tool processing.
Apply a small amount of paste (it should be a paste, not a gel) or Brasso on a soft, clean, lint-free cloth (an old undershirt, for example); either buy a special disk wipe or use a glasses wipe;
Gently rub with a cleaning cloth over the scratch or work your way around the radius (start in the center and move forward to the outer edge of the disc, like the spokes on a bicycle wheel). Repeat 10-12 times throughout the disc. Rubbing in a circular motion can cause small scratches that will completely knock out the laser system in any player. Try to focus your efforts strictly on the scratch or scratches you find (see search method above), if possible.
Polish in this way for a couple of minutes, adding the agent (Brasso or paste) to the cloth as needed. Be careful not to push too hard. However, you will still feel the napkin gently, and yet rub the disc.
Remove the polish from the disc. If you used a paste, rinse the disc thoroughly with warm water and let it dry -!completely! - on air. Make sure all the paste is washed off. If Brasso polish is applied, wipe off the remaining product with a work cloth and allow the rest to dry properly. Then, using a clean, non-abrasive cloth, gently wipe the disc again.
Try playing the disc again. If the problem persists, repeat polishing, but now extend the process to 15 minutes or until the scratch is completely smoothed out. The surface around the scratch should be shiny and covered with many tiny, superficial scratches. If you don't notice any difference after polishing for a few minutes, the scratch may be too deep, or you may be polishing the wrong scratch.
If the disk is still out of order, try taking it to the pros from the computer toy store - they often face a similar problem.
Waxing
Then wipe off excess product from the surface using a clean, soft, lint-free cloth - again, from the center straight up, along the radius. Follow the product manufacturer's instructions (some products must dry before you wipe them off, others must be removed before they dry).
Test the disk. If the disc was read, make a copy immediately. This method- it's just a temporary solution.
Light bulb method
Note: This method doesn't always work, but it's very simple and worth trying.
Turn on the lamp on the desktop (or any available) - the bulb needs 60 watts. Insert your index finger into the center hole of the disk and turn the working area of the disk towards the lamp. The distance to the lamp should be about 10 cm (keep an eye on this while holding). Continue "solar procedures" for about 20 seconds, slowly rotating the disc around your finger. Then - while the disk is still hot - try to read the data. It turns out - immediately make a copy.
A disk recovery device can cost as much as 750 rubles, but high-performance machines will cost 9000-180000 rubles.
Removing scratches on silver layer disk
Look at the working surface of the disc in the light - for areas with no silver coating. If you find one, turn the disc over with the side with the logo / design up and mark on it with a marker the place with the found (the one that you saw on the other side) problem. Cut two pieces of masking tape, put them on top of each other and stick the resulting one directly on the drawn mark. In this case, the music disc will probably start playing a little louder, but 70% is due to the fact that small areas that have lost their silver coating will be restored.
Additions and warnings:
Deep scratches that reach the disc's silver finish can render it completely inoperable;
Disk scratch removers are often sold in gaming stores. They do a good job with small and shallow scratches;
Poorly calibrated lasers in players and disc drives cause such devices to be unable to read anything other than brand new, smooth and unscratched discs. It may simply be a property of the hardware;
Practice restoring scratched discs that are not too important for you first to fill your hand;
Remember to make 2 copies of important materials. Moreover, if the disc is scratched, but still readable, immediately make a copy of it;
Really deep marks on the disc can no longer be repaired. But due to the nature of the structure, when data is distributed along a spiral track on disks, such a scratch along the radius of the disk may not cause you any special problems, and you can recover data quickly and easily. But a number of small defects along the tracks / paths are much more dangerous than one large and perpendicular to them;
The polycarbonate bottom layer of the disk acts as a lens that focuses the larger laser beam to the small size required to see the track on the data layer of the disk. This allows the laser to ignore small imperfections on the plastic surface of the disc that are much larger than the track on the data layer. If you remove a lot of plastic, this can affect the refractive power of the lens, making the data no longer readable. This means that even with visible wear or a network of scratches, the disc can be played normally, because through the coating defects visible to your eye, the laser looks through or reads next to them. That's why the waxing method helps a lot. After it, the disk does not have to look perfectly polished so that the data can be read;
It is better to give a disk with important data into the hands of professionals immediately;
Expensive specialized wheel polishing products do not work better than that same Brasso, so the choice is yours;
If the disc is an Xbox 360 game, try exchanging the disc at the store. Disc mileage may vary, but Microsoft saves 25 cents on the production cost of Xbox 360 discs by not including disc safety measures that would help avoid many scratches. Such disks will show themselves as deep scratches along the radius, but sometimes not over the entire surface of the disk;
Do not keep the disc in the sun for a long time (looking at scratches) and near the lamp;
If you polish poorly (for example, apply too much pressure and/or rub in a circular motion), you can shorten the life of this disc;
In order not to damage the equipment, make sure that after the procedures the disc is completely cleaned of funds and absolutely dry;
Do not inhale disc polishing products - wear a mask and work in a well-ventilated area;
The data on the discs is stored under a thin colored layer on top, which is much thinner than the polycarbonate layer on the work surface. Therefore, be careful not to place the disc with the picture on a surface that is too rough, hard and/or uneven during operation. The thin top layer of paint is very easy to damage, if this happens, the data will be lost forever. If the surface is too soft, by pressing on the disc, you can leave a crack in it or cause delamination;
Solvents should not be applied to discs, they will change the formula of the polycarbonate base, due to which it will become opaque and the disc unreadable;
Be aware that the paste can scratch the disc even more;
If you decide to try these methods with a licensed DVD (the last 3), be extremely careful not to start rubbing the side with the name of the DVD with a rag. If you do this, you will completely kill the disk. So just clean its shiny working side.
Xbox consoles read information from the surface of discs using a laser. If the disc is scratched, the laser will be refracted, causing the disc to be unreadable or misread. However, you can try repairing a scratched Xbox disc with scratch fillers. For example, you can use toothpaste or lip balm. Read this article to learn how to repair a scratched Xbox game disc.
Steps
Part 1
Use of toothpaste- However, you will not be able to change the situation if the disc is stratified or cracked. Cracked discs suffer structural damage, while layered discs deteriorate due to delamination of the substrate and polycarbonate data base.
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Wipe the disc with a soft cloth. Use a microfiber or other soft cloth to wipe down the disc after you rinse it. Wipe the disc from the center to the edge. Avoid circular motions. Thanks to this, no more scratches will appear.
Purchase regular white toothpaste. You will need the appropriate toothpaste to repair a scratched disc. The toothpaste will act as a grinding tool, which will remove the thin top layer along with the scratches. To get the desired effect, you will need a regular white toothpaste containing baking soda.
- Do not use gel toothpaste or one that contains whitening agents.
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Squeeze some toothpaste onto the scratch on the disc. Apply a small amount of paste directly to the scratched area.
Use a cotton swab to spread the toothpaste evenly over the surface of the disc. Take a small cotton swab and wipe the surface of the disk in a circular motion. Do it exactly as if you were waxing a car. Treat the scratch along its entire length.
- There is no need to put in a lot of effort. Do this gently in a circular motion.
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Continue sanding until the scratch is completely gone or barely visible. New fine toothpaste scratches may appear, but major deep scratches will disappear completely.
If this method does not work the first time, repeat the toothpaste option again before using another method.
Wash the disc and dry it. After you remove all scratches, rinse the disc under running water and wipe it dry with a soft cloth.
Try running the disk. After you remove the scratch with lip balm, try running the disc. Before installing the disc in the Xbox, you need to wipe off almost all the wax from it. A disc covered in wax can damage your Xbox console.
Rinse the disc. Rinse your disc before using toothpaste to remove dirt and dust. You can rinse the disc with warm water over a sink.
Part 3
Using the Magic EraserPurchase the Magic Eraser. To quickly remove deep scratches, try using a dry Magic Eraser. This is a special cleaning sponge designed to remove stains and scratches from various kinds of surfaces. You can buy this product at a hardware store. Cheap versions of this tool are also quite effective. The secret of this eraser is a material that is commonly called melamine foam.
Use an eraser to remove scratches. Wipe the surface of the disc, starting from the center to the edges. Apply sufficient force to remove the scratch. However, do not overdo it so as not to remove the entire surface layer of the disc.
Rinse and dry the disc. After removing scratches with the Magic Eraser, rinse the disc under running tap water and wipe it with a soft cloth. Wipe the disc dry. Do this from the center to the edges.
Try running the disk. After you remove the scratch and rinse the disc, try running it again. If it still won't work, you can try repeating the above process or resort to another method.
Part 4
Using the Disk Recovery ToolPurchase a disc scratch removal tool. This tool can be ordered online or bought at an electronics store. A device called SkipDr is designed to restore the readability of optical discs during their natural wear, in particular, when the working surface of the disc is worn out. Although you can also use other similar tools.
Rinse the disc with water and wipe it dry before using the disc scratch remover. Rinse the disc with warm water to remove dust and debris, and then wipe it with a microfiber cloth. As a rule, such a soft fabric is already included in the kit.
Spray polishing liquid on the working side of the disc. Before starting work, it is necessary to treat the disk with a special liquid using the spray included in the kit. Apply liquid in an even layer over the entire working side of the disc.
Insert the disc into the slot of the device designed to recover damaged discs. Depending on the type of device you will be using, the disc loading process may differ. Make sure that the working side of the disc is facing the grinding head. Follow the instructions in the instructions so that you can correctly insert the disc.
Turn on the device designed to recover damaged disks. Press the button or turn the crank to start the disk spinning. During rotation, the working side of the disc will be polished with special pads. You will likely have to repeat the process multiple times to remove deep scratches.
The essence of the problem
This fault is damage to the magnetic plates hard drive in the form of ring scratches (cuts) resulting from the impact of magnetic heads on the surface of the plates. When the heads hit the surface of the platters, the heads fail, and the smallest metal dust appears in the HDA from the damaged magnetic layer covering the platters. Scratches on the surface of the plates are the most problematic damage when recovering data from the HDD. This is related to the fact that new block heads installed in a sawn disk, with a high degree probability will quickly fail due to the presence of scratches and the smallest magnetic dust on the surfaces of the HDD platters.
Causes of cuts:
- various mechanical effects on the drive, shocks, falls, vibration;
- low-quality power supply of the drive;
- defects in the manufacture of the drive at the manufacturer's factory;
- physical wear of the heads caused by long 24/7 operation;
- incorrect disconnection of the hard drive from a running computer;
- the disk emits a loud intermittent knock with a pronounced metallic clang;
- the hard drive motor spins up, but after a few knocks on the heads it can stop;
- the disk is not detected in any diagnostic program, and if it is detected, it does not show its volume.
Burns on the surface of magnetic platters are the most serious damage that fatally affects the possibility of successful data recovery from hard drives. The very fact of the presence of scratches on the disk plates indicates that the information cannot be completely restored, because. data in the area of scratches is already irretrievably lost. In the best case, it is possible to recover user files from undamaged portions of the plates.
Photos of discs with ring cuts on the plates
The photographs below show discs with fatal damage to the magnetic layer on the platters. The first example shows a photo of a disk whose heads have scratched a deep groove on the magnetic plates near the spindle in the parking area. Because of what appeared in the HDA great amount fine metal dust and shavings that have settled on all parts of the hard drive. In the second example, a 2.5" disk with external parking is photographed, in which the thin magnetic layer is almost completely erased by the heads and through the transparent glass plates you can see Bottom part HDD HDD. Both drives suffered such damage due to the fact that they were left on for a long time by the owners in the presence of loud knocks coming from failed heads. Different types of damage happened because the plates of 3.5" disks are made of aluminum coated with a magnetic layer, while the plates of 2.5" disks are made of tempered glass.
Technique for restoring information when cutting on the surface of magnetic plates
The appearance of scratches on the surface of the plates primarily indicates the failure of the block of magnetic heads, because. it is the heads that, when they hit the plate, form an annular cut on it and at the same moment they themselves fail. To recover data from a hard drive that has scratches on the surface of the plates, you must first replace the magnetic head unit from exactly the same drive of a similar model and volume. Further, with the help of the PC3000 DataExtractor software and hardware complex, sector-by-sector copying of the disk is performed, taking into account the location of the ring scratch on the platters. Those. if the scratch is at the beginning of the disc, then copying is done by reverse from the end, if the scratch is at the end of the disc, then copying is done forward in ascending LBA, if the scratch is in the middle of the plate, then copying is done first to the scratch, and then reversed from the end to the scratch. This method allows you to subtract maximum amount data from a damaged drive. The presence of scratches on several HDD platters or only on one is also taken into account. If the scratch is located only on one plate, and the others are not damaged, then first the data from the plates without cuts are completely subtracted, and then the damaged plate is subtracted as much as possible. This can only be done on the PC3000 DataExtractor, because this complex, thanks to working with disks in the technological mode, allows you to see which LBA sectors are located on which platters. Please note that discs with such damage can only be copied sector by sector, excluding scratch areas. If you make an attempt to copy information by folders and files, then there is a high probability that the disk will try to read the file located directly in the filed area and then the hard disk head will instantly fail. An additional negative feature of data recovery in the presence of scratches on the disk platters is the need to use several donor disks, and not one, as in simple cases. This is due to the formation of fine metal dust inside the HDA, which appears as a result of damage to the magnetic layer of the plates as a result of the impact of the heads. Often there are cases when the disk platters are so badly scratched by the heads that it is impossible to recover data from them at all. This happens when a knocking disk with a faulty block of magnetic heads remains switched on for a long time and the heads have time to cause significant damage to the plates.
Why a disc with sawn plates cannot be used in the future
When it comes to disks with ring cuts on the platters, we can only talk about data recovery. Even if you replace the heads and temporarily restore the HDD's operability, then when you try to use it in the future, the new heads will definitely fall on the area washed down on the plates and immediately fail again.
How to fix scratched discs?
Master's response:
Any CD, DVD disc is a round shape with a transparent base made of a substance called polycarbonate. The entire "stuffing" of the disc depends on its type, absolutely all discs have a protective layer, which completely wears out over time, and scratches appear on it.
For work you will need: toothpaste; disk.
All these scratches completely prevent the drive laser beam from processing data from the damaged area. The thickness of such a protective layer is 1.2 mm for CD and 0.6 mm for DVD. When restoring a CD or DVD, a light sanding of the clear surface can help. Grab your drive with toothpaste, preferably Colgate, tissues and water. By itself, the toothpaste will be a grinding tool, with its help you can remove a thin top layer along with all the scratches.
Apply the paste to the surface of the disc. Spread it completely over the surface of the disc using a tissue or with your fingers. Let the disc dry for a while, leaving it for a few minutes. After that, rinse the disc with water or in a specially prepared basin. Rinse off all the paste so that there is not even a trace. Wipe the disc dry with paper towels or a towel. Start wiping gently at all ends of the disc so as not to damage the surface and completely clean it of water.
Check the disk on your computer. If the recovery process did not help, then try to do the procedure again, but do not forget about the thickness of the protective layer, depending on the disk model. Almost 90 percent of all scratched discs will be able to recover, for a while with the help of this method. If the computer reads the contents of your media, then you need to completely transfer all data from the device to local drives computer.
If the disc has light scratches, then wipe its surface with a napkin or swab dipped in alcohol. All scratches will not disappear, but it will help wash dirt off the disc, which will improve access to the reflective layer.