Cleaning CD query

savedmoney

Hi

Following on from my thread on what happened to my CD-RW
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2683261

I am planning to clean it using
a solution of
Isopropyl Alcohol
and
a microfibre cloth

I have a quick query the
Isopropyl Alcohol
solution that I have came with an audio cassette cleaning kit

It also contains
Trichlorotrifluoroethane
Trichlorotrofluoroethane (As spelt on the label that is "tro" instead of "tri")
Not sure what this chemical is but

Will this solution be suitable to use to clean my CD?

esuhl

I imagine the damage/corruption will be with the dye layer of the CD-R/W, so I wouldn't have thought that cleaning the external surface of the disk would have much effect (and you might end up adding a few scratches).

I found a really badly scratched CD once, and discovered that CD drives vary quite a lot in their ability to read damaged disks. Some of my PCs rejected the disk, while others played it with far fewer problems. Eventually I managed to make a perfect copy of the disk with Nero and burn it to a new CD-R that works in any PC.

So it might be worth trying a few different drives before you risk damaging the disk any further...

KillerWatt

savedmoney wrote: »

Will this solution be suitable to use to clean my CD?

It doesn't matter how many times you clean that CD, or what you clean it with - the damage is internal and has happened at chemical level (which means the disc is fubared unless you want to spend £1000's getting the data back).

savedmoney

Hi all

Thanks for all your replies.

Well I gave the CD a clean using

Isopropyl Alcohol solution with (trichlorotrifluoroethane) (Originally came with my audio cassette head cleaner)
and

Microfibre Cloth

And it turns out the griminess was only on the surface. The cleaning kit worked very well.

See
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/36079995#Comment_36079995
For update on the general issue on what happened to by CD-RW