Soda + MD = Bad News

[clonehappy]

Avid MD user since 96...but I finally ran into a problem I can't solve on my own

To make a long story short, I have 5 discs that got soda spilled into them, and now they have gooey residue inside them. I would really like to salvage the discs, if possible.

I am wondering if anyone has had this happen, and what the best way to remedy this issue would be? I tried to clean the majority of the residue off with alcohol, but it was only marginally successful. I tried playing one of the discs in a cheap portable, and it appears it can't spin the platter because the sticky residue has permeated frozen it in place.

I was thinking of soaking the discs in "goo-gone" (basically naptha or lighter fluid), then rinsing them with water and letting them dry thoroughly, but I don't want to risk losing the information on the disc.

I tried searching the forums, and google was not much help either. I did, however, find an automatic disc cleaner online, and if anyone thinks this might work I would gladly purchase it.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks All!!

[Strungup]

wow , good one dude .

Hot water , disolves sugar , the Chemicals you mention might damage the disc ,

this would be the test , and I would like to see pics .

A "Dutch Oven " pot under , Pot inside water in both slow cook the discs in the top pot , over an hour or so ( Maybe more ???) but not hot enough to boil or warp the plastic .

Or running under warm water while carefully holding the the shutter open , and rinsing the disc.

[KJ_Palmer]

You might like to try an adaptation of method that some Hi-MD users have done in order to obtain nicer casings for their 1GB blanks. That is, slit the original damaged MD casing open with a craft knife down the 'seam', and do the same with the target disk casing. Best to use a good quality new disc with metal shutter, eg. Sony or TDK etc. Be careful of course not to cut the actual disc itself. Discard original casing. Wash the gunk off with warm water only and allow to air dry for several hours, eg. overnight. Glue back together with a thin layer of epoxy resin suitable for plastics, or perhaps superglue would do. Trim off excess glue when dry, and Bob's your uncle, hopefully..

[Nate A]

ai would DEFANATLY NOT use superglue or similar glues. it will form a white haze on the disc case and probably leave a haze of some kind on the disk.

I'd go with epoxy or model kit glue, these MD cases seem to be the same styreen plastic as most model kits are made from.

I would think soaking the disc in warm tap water for a while, shaking it out a few times and soaking again would do it. leaving it to dry overnight ?

[raintheory]

With discs we run into a tricky situation. From what I understand, there is a coating of lubricant on the top part of the disc itself (where the recording head glides during recording). Cleaning and/or submerging the discs in even just plain water could mess with the lubrication.

Also, if you have hard water you'd be better off using distilled or spring water IMO.

I would recommend not recording on the discs after you clean them, as the recording head may then scratch the top of the disc itself.. This also includes TOC edits or anything where the data structure of the disc needs to be changed.

This would be an interesting experiment though, provided you have both an extra recorder and extra discs. I wouldn't try recording on important discs after submerging them in anything though.

Playback should be fine though after cleaning, as it only uses a laser/

Edited March 29, 2008 by raintheory

[dirkhb]

With discs we run into a tricky situation. From what I understand, there is a coating of lubricant on the top part of the disc itself (where the recording head glides during recording). Cleaning and/or submerging the discs in even just plain water could mess with the lubrication.

Hi,

the lubricant coating you mentioned seems to be optional, as the Sony Minidisc Training Manual says. The record head of MD recorders is made of a low friction material and glides on the disc surface even without lubricant.

I cleaned some badly soiled disc with water some time ago. After soaking them, I dried the discs with compressed air through the opened shutter. They work perfectly since, in playback and also in record mode.

Dirk