GCN April 20, 1998

Power User cleans up discs, reviews books and chases a Tiger

POWER USER
John McCormick

Have you ever gotten a few scratches on a CD audio disc that made it skip? The same thing happens to far costlier CD-ROM program and data discs, and replacement costs can really add up. Damaged program and archival discs will proliferate as time goes by because users have been led to expect CDs to last for years. But when they get passed around an office or library, rather than protected inside a CD server, they're bound to suffer wear and tear.

Esprit Development Corp. of Flemington, N.J., has come up with a solution--literally. Its Wipe Out! polishing solution removes surface scratches from any optical disc's clear polycarbonate coating. The $15 Wipe Out! CD Repair Kit will take scratches off about 80 CD-ROMs, audio CDs or digital video discs, or a fair number of the larger video discs.

Hang 10 Test

I tried Wipe Out!, and it works. Even if it doesn't work every time, the discs are ruined anyway, so what do you have to lose? Note that this is not just another cleaner kit, which can do more harm than good if you clean too often. Wipe Out! polishes the scratches off the clear layer that protects the reflective layer containing data. The clear layer holds no information, so even deep scratches are fixable as long as they don't reach the the metallic wafer.

Anyone who handles optical discs carelessly--you know who you are--should buy Wipe Out! Look for it at computer stores or visit the Web at http://www.cdrepair.com

Copyright (c) 1998 Government Computer News