How To Clean DVD's Victimized By Hurricane Katrina??

What a drag but I'm glad you're okay and I welcome you to A2K!


Here are some tips from the Optical Storage Technology Association (who knew?).

Handle discs carefully by the edges only.
Inspect the surface of the disc for damage or contamination, to see if it needs to be cleaned. Canned compressed air is excellent for removing dust.
If needed, rinse carefully in clean, warm water to remove any grit that could cause scratches when the disc is wiped.
If any debris or film remains that needs to be removed, clean gently with warm water and a mild detergent (e.g., dish-washing detergent), eyeglass cleaning solution, isopropyl alcohol or a commercially available CD/DVD cleaning solution.
Gently wipe dry with a lint-free, soft cotton cloth. Use a wiping motion moving from the center of the disc to the outside edge instead of wiping around the disc. If wiping does cause any scratch, an "inside to outside" scratch will cut across the data tracks around the disc instead of running along them and damaging additional data.
If any residue or film remains, wipe with alcohol and a soft cleaning wipe.
Remember to clean the case, too.
If a disc is still damp, store upright (on edge) to allow to air dry.
Insert thoroughly dry disc in appropriate disc drive to attempt to read data. If the disc isn't readable, try a different disc drive. Different drives have different optical qualities with varying thresholds of error correction ability.
Data on the majority of discs is likely to be readable after following these steps. For those discs that still cannot be read, additional information on disc handling and data recovery is available on OSTA's website in the data handling, storage and disposal sections of two white papers on recordable CDs and DVDs. For the applicable section in "Understanding CD-R and CD-RW" go to http://www.osta.org/technology/cdqa12.htm. and for "Understanding Recordable and Rewritable DVD" the related section is located at www.osta.org/technology/dvdqa/dvdqa10.htm.

Here's a link to the full article: http://www.osta.org/osta/press_releases/pr052009.htm

mild detergent probably includes several things like lysol and other disinfectants

The real key is to not use harsh chemicals that could eat the plastic. Test a CD you don't care about if you are concerned about using something stronger than alcohol.