I'm curious to what would be the best method to remove labels I put on some DVD-R's. It's causing read errors. I did remove one label and had a heck of a time but it did correct the read error problems. Is there any easy safe way?
... First .. Peel as much of the label off as possible ... Second .. Buy some "Goo Gone", it will remove the rest very easily ... Note: Goo Gone is available at WalMart, and many other stores .. It is also great at removing the sticky goop that most stickers leave behind when you try to remove them ...
Will that Goo-Gone damage the disc? Is it some solvent? I just use alcohol because I figure that's what is in my Sharpie anyhow.
... Anything that you use could damage the disc if you allow it to contact the edge of the disc ... As far as damaging the surface, I'm convinced that it's as safe as alcohol ...
I recently saw on a local TV news show a bit on how to remove labels such as bumper stickers and other permenant labels. They tried Goo-Gone and three other products. The one that worked the best, and this really surprised me, is [bold] WD-40[/bold]. Amazing!
i have used wd-40,warm soapy water(don't soak disc in water)& alcohol to clean any film or residue left behind. had to do about 20 disc. not a fun process,but it works.
Your better off with the GOO GONE, its citrus base and will evaportate in time. Won't harm plastic. WD-40 is oil base and a much stronger solvent. It will work faster but is harder to get off. May damage some plastics. Jerry
you can use either of these,i like wd-40 it is faster and less mess than goo gone. in my experience wd-40 cleans up eaiser. alcohol as i said before does well. which ever you choose,good luck puff
If all else fails, battery acid will get rid of most substances. Unfortunately, this would also include your fingers, arms & most importantly your disc. I would not really recommend that, maybe as a last resort, but you would have to be REALLY desperate!! (I am of course joking about using battery acid for ANYTHING except for batteries) Please do not use battery acid, you would only regret it as you saw your skin dissolving before your very eyes.
I hope I do not get banned for joking about using battery acid. Fortunately the Moderators here have a wicked & perverse sense of humour, like myself!!
Hey Pulsar, That was a good one! But in all seriousness it is really difficult to remove those sticky labels once they adhere to the disc surface. A DVD spins much, much faster than a CD. Any such wobble will make the disc unreadable. It doesn't matter what media you're using and what type of drive you have. It's the wobble effect that causes the read errors. I've prooven this by labeling DVD copies and when I went to make a copy of the copy, NO GO! I tried everything including different burn programs and NO GO! Then when I spent over an hour removing the label guess what, it worked! Also something I forgot to mention is I used Nero's DVD-CD Drive Speed utility to scan the disc for errors and it found plenty. Once I removed the label and rescanned guess what, NO ERRORS. Labeling DVDR's with the stickon labels is a NO GO! I've learned and will never label a DVDR with a stickon label again!!!
Yes, I am aware of that fact manestle! I do not know of anyone on this site who would even dream of putting labels on their dvds or cds. A marker pen is quicker & a lot cheaper! I use furniture polish to clean up dvds, it is also a very effective scratch remover (unless the scratch is like a ploughed field of course). Then I would use coarse sandpaper. (JOKING!!)
Well pulsar I agree. But I have never ever had problems with labeling CDR's. The ultimate would be to have one of those CD printers. I seen an Epson that was pretty empressive. That would be a much safer and effective way to label your discs. I will probably have one of those. Another problem with the sticky labeled discs is that if they peel up while in a drive guess what, YOU'VE GOT PROBLEMS. I had a friend that had that problem and thank God for my years of experience in electronics repair I was able to remove the disc after tearing the drive apart. I strongly recommend NOT to label CDR's and especially DVDR's!!!
Hi all , decided to go out today and buy a label maker for my DVD-R's. What a major stuff up this was!! Turned my perfectly good copies into jittering and jumping rubbish. Read the forum here and removed the lables, without too much fuss either, and all working good as gold again. Interestingly i found the lables on the sony discs peeled straight off without any residue but had a bit of trouble with a couple of the JVC discs i had labelled. Is it ok to use the labels on CD-r's or should i forget about it all together and throw the labels and the label maker in the bin? thanks in advance
Well spaldo, With the trouble I had with labeling CD-R's and also DVD-R's I would highly recommend NOT to label any discs with the stickey labels. I had a friend who labeled a bunch of CD-R's and had one of them in his car deck in the middle of summer on a hot day and the label peeled up a bit and he couldn't get the disc to eject. Also just applying the label a hair off will cause wobble which will cause read errors and this is especially true of DVDR's which spin much faster than CD-R's. It doesn't matter what type of media or drive you're using the outcome is ALWAYS the same. I've learned this the hard way. I think if you want to label your discs you might want to invest in a disc printer. Epson has one for about $100.
To remove any label from a DVD use Zippo Lighter Fluid only. No not use GOO GONE or WD-40 as these are oily base products and the DVD need to be washed very good to remove traces. Lighter Fluid will remove the label in less than five minutes and you do not need to wash it. Place your DVD on a paper towel, label up, and wet it with the Lighter Fluid keeping it wet, with your finger, as it dries very fast. Do this for a couple of minuter and wait two more minutes and starting at the outer edge pull a little of the label up and off the DVD then slowly pull off the whole label. Wait five minuter for all the Lighter Fluid to dry. WOW so easy. Hope this help, Robert
To remove any label from a DVD use Zippo Lighter Fluid only. No not use GOO GONE or WD-40 as these are oily base products and the DVD need to be washed very good to remove traces. Lighter Fluid will remove the label in less than five minutes and you do not need to wash it. Place your DVD on a paper towel, label up, and wet it with the Lighter Fluid keeping it wet, with your finger, as it dries very fast. Do this for a couple of minuter and wait two more minutes and starting at the outer edge pull a little of the label up and off the DVD then slowly pull off the whole label. Wait five minuter for all the Lighter Fluid to dry. WOW so easy. Hope this help, Robert i think lighter fluid would work very well. but since when is lighter fluid not an oil based product?
I too am in the process of removing paper labels, but I have about 200 dvd's with labels. I guess I'll set up a production line or something. Can anyone say whether it is better to peel the label and then remove the goo left behind (using a chemical), or try to soak the label and then not leave any good behind. Seems like soaking the label in warm water makes it impossible to peel off since it tears, but using a wooden spatula I was able to scrape a soaked label off in bits. But if anyone else has done over 100 or so, I'd be interested to know what was the fastest way to get it done. BTW, for you folks who don't believe that label problems are due to the adhesive and heat, its possible to just peel just half the label off a DVD and revive it. Even if you peel off half vertically, leaving the left side labeled and the right side clean, it will usually play just fine. So the problem with labels is not due to balance or wobble, or poor quality media or poor quality labels. And I have found one DVD player that could read all my labeled DVD's, but all the rest in my house could not. So its definitely something related to the standards that most DVD players adhere to, probably for the flatness of the DVD and focusing the laser. But anyway, usually after 3 months or so, almost all labeled DVD's will fail. And to revive them, removing even just pie-shaped section of the label usually works.
