Last Friday, Yoshi, Brad and I were at Fry's Electronics at lunch time. Yoshi had to get a new heatsink for a video card and Brad and I were along for the ride.
We roamed around looking for cool stuff and I spotted one of those CD repair gizmos. Come to think of it, I need one of those...
You see Zoe's favorite Gamecube game is scratched to the point that it won't play. Gamecube games aren't cheap, running upwards of $50 a pop and fixing the game disc was better than replacing it. So I bought it.
In a strange coincidence, Brad had picked up a different CD repair device that worked by a different method. We agreed to compare and contrast the devices over the weekend.
The one I bought was a SkipDr Disk Repair System. The unit was simple to use. Snap the disc in, spray with the mystery fluid, and crank the handle ofr two full revolutions.
I used it on the ailing Super Smash Brothers, and happily it was repaired. Zoe cheered and promptly went on a Smashing binge for a few hours.
Next, I used it on a few audio CDs. Several months ago, I ripped my entire CD collection to MP3s and there were a handful of CDs to scratched to rip. Of the previously unreadable CDs, four of them were repaired with SkipDr. Not bad. The one that wasn't fixed is an old Eagles CD that I think has CD rot.
In summary, if you have a scratched disc, the $20-$30 a repair unit costs is well worth it.