If you're sure not to use any scratching materials then it hardly matters. But if you do damange to the disc with your cleaning, then the 2nd option is prone to damage consecutive data portions and thus causing more damage than the 1st option.
Using soft water is usually better than using hard one. If I clean my monitors using tap water I get lot of residue, while they're super clean and residue-free when using softer (bottled) water.
Fudoh wrote:If you're sure not to use any scratching materials then it hardly matters.
Just a lens cleaning microfiber cloth.
Fudoh wrote:But if you do damange to the disc with your cleaning, then the 2nd option is prone to damage consecutive data portions and thus causing more damage than the 1st option.
Thanks that's very helpful!
Fudoh wrote:Using soft water is usually better than using hard one. If I clean my monitors using tap water I get lot of residue, while they're super clean and residue-free when using softer (bottled) water.
I don't have any distilled water, but I can buy some, otherwise the tap water here is too hard (high limestone content) and I don't know about the mineral water I drink.
I don't have any distilled water, but I can buy some, otherwise the tap water here is too hard (high limestone content) and I don't know about the mineral water I drink.
any bottled water (Evian and such) should be perfectly fine.
I don't have any distilled water, but I can buy some, otherwise the tap water here is too hard (high limestone content) and I don't know about the mineral water I drink.
any bottled water (Evian and such) should be perfectly fine.
Oh yeah? Thanks, actually Evian is usually what I use for small stains/smudges that wouldn't go away with just a dry lens microfiber cloth on sensitive material (CRT screen or LCD screen), but I was afraid it was leaving behind residues and deposits or something.
Use isopropyl alcohol, usually 70% is good for discs. If you use tissues for the alcohol, be sure to avoid pressing too hard, and then gently dry. If you're worried you press too hard with tissues (if you press too hard it can leave micro scuffing) use a micro cloth for drying. Using a microfiber cloth is good afterwards anyway because tissues can sometimes leave dust specs on the disc. Direction in which you move does not really matter.
Isopropyl alcohol indeed works great!
If you don't have access to that, or discs that are quit dusty (the dust might cause scratches if you simply wipe it off), cleaning under tap water works great:
1. Clean your hands with soap.
2. Rinse the disc with tap water.
3. Create some soap sud und clean the disc with that. You can safely use your (cleaned) hands to rub the soap sud in.
4. Rinse the disc with tap water.
5. Inspect the disc; you might want to repeat step 3 if you see any remaining stains (old fingerprints might be quite resilient).
6. Finished? Shake off excess water from the disc and lay it down onto a clean surface.
7. Dry your hands with a clean towel.
8. Grab the disc by its ridge and use the towel to dry off the printed side.
9. Use something clean and lint-free (I use simple cleansing tissues) to remove any remaining water from the disc's data side.
10. If water seeped into the disc's inner ring, you can easily remove it with a vacuum's suction pipe.
Results may vary (e.g. not every soap might be suitable), but using this method, I've managed to clean a multitude of discs (CDs, DVDs, even some BDs) without putting a single scratch into them.
Last edited by Thomago on Sun Jan 29, 2017 1:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
