[QUOTE=princekrillo;2595743]This may be a dumb question, but can optical discs get damaged from being “shaken” in the air?
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No.
[QUOTE=princekrillo;2595743]I sometimes do this before I put a disc back into its case to get rid of any dust particles before putting it away. I’ll sort of “wave” the disc back and forth in the air.
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Seriously? I doubt this would get dust off, probably wouldn’t even get thick grain sand off either.
[QUOTE=princekrillo;2595743]Could this type of motion be harmful to the disc physically or risk damaging the data layer or anything like that?[/QUOTE]
No, although there is a possibility that when you’re shaking it you’re exerting bending stresses on the disc from your fingers gripping the disc. I’ll also neglect to mention all the natural oils, grease and grime from your fingers which you are hard-pressing onto the reading surface of the CD.
Overall, I suspect shaking the disc is at best, fruitless, and at worst, makes you look silly and coats the reading surface of the disc with a an uneven surface of oil.
Wipe the disc with lint-free cloth as suggested earlier.
[B][U]Memorex rebrands cheap/chinese manufactured $hit discs that disintegrate by themselves after a few days with or without use[/U][/B]. Use a decent brand like Taiyo Yuden/ Mitsubishi which come packaged as “That’s” or Verbatim, and your disc “readability” problems will be over. Refer to the media section of the forum for recomendations on where to get it.
My work PC spent 16hrs (all day and most of overnight) recovering a memorex disc that one of my workmates had sent to her, from one of her relations in Washington.
I checked about 80 of the 500 recovered photo’s that were on it, and approximately 50% were unusable/unrecoverable. You get what you pay for.
Cheap $hit memorex disc that disintegrated in under 1 week -> $0.25 … Postage Washington USA to Sydney, OZ -> $10. Wasn’t that smart value 