DVD/CD players

[zinger]

I found a ton of old CD/DVDs I had made years ago and noticed that some of them had gathered moisture in the case and caused the title sheet to get stuck on the disk. When I tried to remove the paper, some of it stuck to it. My question is, will it damage the motor drive with a patch of paper stuck to it? I would think it would make it unbalanced and am afraid to play them. I tried a few and they did ok but wondered whether or not I should use them? Silly question probably but you can't be too careful sometimes. BTW, there's nothing on the disks that are of any major importance.

[patio]

BTW, there's nothing on the disks that are of any major importance.

This says it all...

[zinger]

So you're saying that if I hadn't made that last statement, you'd have some kind of advice?

[BC_Programmer]

Back when brick & Mortar Rental stores were a thing, Disc-based Video games as well as DVDs would often have labels affixed to them, and it wasn't particularly deleterious (beyond making the disc look ugly...)

And since the paper in question was not actually adhered to the disc you can probably just soak it in warm water for an hour and wipe it right off.

[Mark.]

as you say, worst case, the disc will be unbalanced and the unit will make a lovely screaming noise.it'll be fine to use just to see what's on the discs and copy them off if required.
but as Patio states, if the info isn't important, why even bother, apart from pure human curiosity of course.
not to sure about soaking them in water however.
depending on the type, the majority of discs for ages have used an organic dye between the substrate material and I don't know how they would like water getting in.i've seen quite a few discs with a 'rot' infection, presumably from moisture.

[BC_Programmer]

Disc "Rot" is a result of oxygen getting in and oxidizing the dye/data layer- (or metal reflective layer in the case of stamped discs) usually due to scratches on the label side of the disc. If there are scratches that make the metal substrate accessible to air or water I don't expect it would make much of a difference which one it was. the "Damage is already done" so to speak.

[zinger]

Thanks BC and Mark for the responses, being that they aren't important I will soak them in water and see what happens.

[zinger]

A follow up on the water soak procedure, 2 were saved and 7 couldn't be salvaged, even with using goo gone. I thought you all might like to know. The two that were saved had the least amount of paper and clue.

[Mark.]

phew - lucky there weren't important then.
thanks for the follow-up.

[Lisa_maree]

Hi I think the ones which were saved may have been commercial dvd's and the ones which couldn't were burnt ones someone made. You should never put water on the ones burnt as the burning process leaves small holes in the underside of the disk which act as a sponge and will ruin the disks. Commercial disks are normally in cased after the disk has been made, so unless the coating is damaged are sealed.

[BC_Programmer]

Recordable discs have a pre-existing pregroove track. From "label" side to underside, they consist of a lacquered protective layer, the metal reflective layer, the organic dye recording layer, and the polycarbonate substrate. The discs are "premade" with a spiral pregroove; recording is done by focusing a laser that is the same wavelength used to read discs at 10 times the strength onto the dye layer. the high temperatures (200-300 centigrade) result in the dye layer literally burning" and causing it to become opaque, which results in an area with lower reflectivity compared to segments which are transparent and allow a read laser to travel and reflect from the underlying metal layer. The process is similar with CD-RW but involves phase-change material and a slightly different composition of dielectric coatings, and careful temperature manipulation.

I'm unable to find any information which suggests that this process results in "holes" in the underlying polycarbonate layer for either type of recordable disc.

[Lisa_maree]

My post was totally wrong, on further research I find as BC_Programmer said there is no damage or change to the bottom layer of the disk when writing. It all happens inside the layers. Thank you BC_Programmer for putting me right on this.   

[zinger]

Sorry to get you guys squabbling, just saying that the paper would not come off on some of them and they are in the trash. It was worth a try and might just have needed warmer water and/or a longer soak time to be successful.

[BC_Programmer]

Hardly squabbling! I did seriously think that perhaps I was mistaken with regards to my understanding of the involved technologies- For example often times things are discovered about these things long after the fact that we didn't know about before, so it may have been the case, in my thinking, that it was found that the write laser was creating teensy "tunnels" when writing to the disc- which would have explained why some of the hardware books I have which cover the subject (cheating, I know...) wouldn't mention it.

With regards to the discs, Must have been stuck on good. The way you described it I thought they had simply gotten wet and the paper had dried and stuck to it, but it sounds like there was adhesive involved. Doesn't matter now, I suppose.