How to Clean your CD or DVD at home.

Everybody has DVD or CD collections at their home and keeping it neat and clean for long time is a real pain. Many times you are surprised to get this message ‘Cannot Read Disk’ from your laptop or DVD player or the movie you are playing skips or the picture freezes at certain points. Dust or small scratches can corrupt the integrity of data of your favorite CD or DVD. If you are unable to play CD or DVD, it may be because they are seriously damaged, or it could just be an indicator that immediate cleaning is required. One should know how to clean a CD or a DVD.

Before telling you some of the reliable methods to clean CD or DVD I will be throwing some light on how to keep them safe to increase their life.

• Never ever expose discs to direct sunlight. It may seriously damage your disc.
• Do not spill liquids on discs. Try to keep them out of reach from small kids.
• Do not try to write on discs. This may lead to scratches resulting in damage.
• Tape contains adhesive so never put tape on CD or DVD on discs.
• Do not get dust on discs. Put them in DVD or CD case.
• Always hold a disc by the edges or by one edge and the center hole. Do not touch the shiny surface of the disc. The body always contains some oil in it and when you will touch its shiny surface the finger print impressions may lead to its damage in longer run

Methods to clean CD or DVD

First find out if the disc is reparable or not. If there are light scratches on the disk, hold it up to a light. If light comes through scratches or holes, then the foil layer of the disc is badly damaged and the disc is irreparable. If no light comes, you can reduce the impact of scratches by using following methods:

• Take a clean soft cloth. Make sure it is lint-free. Hold a disc by the edges or by one edge and the center hole without touching the shiny surface. Move the cloth radially outwards from the middle. Never move the cloth in circular motions.
• Take rubbing alcohol and a lint free cloth. Put some rubbing alcohol on DVD or CD and rub gently with soft cloth.
• Take mild soap solution and put 2-3 drops of it and wash the disc with warm water.
• Avoid any heavy duty solvents when you clean a CD, as they can damage the disc.
• Using Banana you can make your disc alive. Apply the fresh banana on disc, moving in a circular motion. Wipe it down with the Banana peel and then with soft lint free cloth. Spray the glass cleaner. And then wipe the disc with the cloth again.
• Many times your kids take out DVD or CD while eating pastries or hamburgers. Sticky, greasy spots can also be cleaned easily. Take baby shampoo mixed in lukewarm water; gently rub the CD surface with this solution using a soft lint-free cloth.
• Almost all the discs have finger prints impressions. It may not give any error like “Cannot Read Disc” but it may fail anytime without notice. Fingerprints are oil-based thus it may lead to serious damage, to avoid such surprises dip a soft cloth in isopropyl alcohol and gently wipe the surface. Never use a petroleum based solvent like acetone, it will permanently destroy the surface.

Important points to remember:

• Allow the cleaned disc to dry completely before attempting to play it again or keeping them safely in DVD or CD case. Let it air dry for about a half hour.
• Always keep the discs in CD or DVD case. If exposed to the environment they will get dirty.
• Take a back up of the data as soon as you have repaired the disc as it is possible that it may fail permanently again.
• Keep your disc neat and clean because then only the chances of introducing dust to the CD or DVD player is minimum.