Help: cds damaged by water

I'm sorry to hear that, Bhelpuri. What a pain.

I agree with Martijn, that the water shouldn't damage the CDs. The problem is indeed that as soon as the albums dry, the inserts stick to the CDs. I think it might be better to remove the inserts while they're wet. If some of them have dried, it might even be a good idea to soak them in water, so the inserts won't stick when you carefully pull them off. I can't guarentee it will work, but it might be worth considering.

I don't think a hair dryer is needed, and certainly shouldn't be used on the CDs themselves. I'd personally try to remove the inserts while the CDs are wet, and then leave them to dry somewhere. In any case, the inserts, when they've been wet, will probably always be wrinkled. But the CDs should be fine.

Peter

Since you're so into computer stuff get them transferred to a hard drive asap. I'd buy a package of sleeves and get them out of that debacle immediately. They should play fine, hopefully. In the future those walmart tubs which seal would be a good place to store them. Right now they're only $4.50. PM me if you want my help and I'll come over and see what I can do to assist you.
Thomas

what a debacle, yikes

Fuck, what an awful disaster. The discs themselves, i mean their reading side shouldn't be affected by water at all. I am very curious about the method you describe above about re-soaking the booklets and trying to se the papers apart, then hair-dry them. Let us know if it works.

BP, sorry to hear about the flooding and poor CDs.

Good luck with the resoaking method - it sounds like the best way to go. I think the difficult part is keeping the inserts flat when they dry, since they can get all crinkly.

hope it all works out well. basements are a source of annoyance in some ways in minnesota. california doesn't have them because of the quakes
thomas

Well, I tried. Resoaking in cold water helps separate the inserts that have pages stuck to each other. If the insert is stuck to the disc or to the jewel case then it's almost inevitable that some portion of it will tear. The whole process of resoaking and separation took about 3 hours for 10 cds. The only problem is with the inserts tearing up. The discs are fine. I ditched the hair dryer since that's too harsh. I applied paper towels in between sheets and kept a heavy weight on them for a couple of days. They dried out but the crinkles cannot be avoided.

For future reference-

1) Get working immediately on wet albums. Do not allow them to dry on their own.
2) It's important to separate the inserts from the jewel case and disc as soon as possible. Leave them drying together and you'll almost surely tear the inserts. Due to their sticky surface it's very likely that part of the insert will remain stuck to the disc.
3) Discs wet with cold water can be wiped clean and work fine
4) If the inserts are stuck then resoak them in cold water, separate the pages and then dry them. I don't think its possible to ever avoid crinkles once the inserts are wet.
5) Depending on the quality of the paper and the degree of severity you might have to soak from about 20 min to 2 hrs. However, the longer you soak the paper, the softer it gets, and higher the chances of inadvertently tearing it simply by holding.

Anyways I give up. I cannot put in all that time for the remaining cds and see some of them tearing.

I guess I'm done with having physical cds. I don't get the time to listen to them as I used to before. And they're a pain to move around. I'm going to get rid of almost all of my cds barring a handful of Ennio and Delerue. Ebay takes too much effort so I'll probably come up with a private list. I'll let you folks know.

3 hours for 10 CDs...what a nightmare: that's night to YEARS work for a collection of any respectable size.
I fully understand you giving up.

Have you tried appealing to the community here and FSM for scans of booklets that have gone destroyed?
It's not the same, I know...but it's something.
Also, maybe some of the companies would be kind enough to help out?
It's worth a try...


For the rest I tend to agree with Bregt.

Store everything away for now (to keep looking at it will just increase your frustration and annoyance) and sleep on it for a couple of weeks.

You can always get rid of them.
Doesn't need to be now.

The key with the drying is to use what is called a blotter book ie one that photographers used for fiber based paper.

I understand the frustration
Thomas

please do

BP: this site is a great indicator.: http://www.soundtrackguide.net/index.ph … searchform
I've used this with my rarer CDs to give an indication to the insurance company.

Yeah, soundtrackguide also values it quite highly at 300 US $.
I find that soundtrackguide -if anything- may be a little on the conservative side!