This article was taken from the February 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands ...

If you've ever owned a CD or DVD, you've certainly had to deal with scratched up, unreadable media. Hardware Secrets has a simple solution: a scratched CD can be recovered by polishing its plastic ...

Clean the disc: cotton, alcohol, and… toothpaste? Start by cleaning the disc with a soft cotton cloth dampened in alcohol or a window-cleaning solution. Be sure to wipe the disc gently from the center ...

Dear Readers: Compact discs sound great, but they scratch so easily. However, don't toss a scratched CD until you try my homemade scratch remedy. Many scratches can be wiped away with ordinary white ...

There's hope for all the mistreated, abused and worn-out CDs of the world. They can be salvaged, those nagging pops, clicks, skips and scratches repaired, by a little gadget called the SkipDoctor by ...

I don't put my CDs or DVDs up after I use them typically. I tend to stack them in a pile on my desk or on the shelf behind my desk. I guess the kids learned the same thing from me since they tend to ...

I have a CD-ROM that is quite scratched (those nasty circular ones...the drive it was in must have been borked somehow). Needless to say, it won't read past a certain point so I need to find out if I ...

Dear Billy: Compact discs can scratch easily, but the good news is that many scratches can be wiped away with ordinary white toothpaste. Gels won't work -- just plain, white toothpaste. Squeeze a ...