Banana can fix scratched CDs?

[llewtrah]

According to an article in the print edition of yesterday's Guardian newspaper, scratched CDs can be fixed by first rubbing them with banana and then with the banana skin. This sounds suspiciously like a UL to me! There was no explanation of why it supposedly worked. Can anyone offer enlightenment or experience of bananas fixing surface damaged CDs?

[Eddylizard]

I've often heard of, though never tried, polishing shoes with a banana peel. I suppose it could be mildly abrasive and act as a polishing agent.

Googling polish and banana mostly leads to refernces to a euphamism that is new to me (perhaps I should turn safe search back on) but I did find this.

Bananas
Use the peel (the inside) to polish your leather boots and shoes. Not recommended for suede but can be used for vinyl. I found myself using the banana peel to polish my new Italian leather boots and they worked magnificently

If it works on leather, maybe it works on the acrylic coating on CD's. Probably only works on very light scratches though.

ETA Fix a scratched CD with a banana.

Although I suspect step 5 "Finally, spray the disc with glass cleaner and wipe it clean." might be effective on it's own.

If you have an unplayable CD I suppose you have nothing to lose - except the price of a banana.

[rockland6674]

The banana trick only works with Monkees CDs.

Originally Posted by rockland6674

The banana trick only works with Monkees CDs.

So it won't work on my gorillaz CD's then?

[Chloe]

I have a moronic question: is the "playing side" of a CD the top or the bottom?

[snopes]

The "playing" side is actually the bottom (i.e., the non-label side), and the disc plays from the inside (i.e., the portion nearest the center hole) outwards.

- snopes

[Chloe]

Thank you! Now, if I were only 100% sure that you weren't mocking the moronicness of the question...

[Tarquin Farquart]

I have a scratched CD I could test this one. I don't have any bananas though...

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Chloe

Thank you! Now, if I were only 100% sure that you weren't mocking the moronicness of the question...

It's not moronic at all. To people who grew up with records, it's quite logical to assume that the playing surface of a CD would be the side that faces up and has a label. I thought so when CDs first came out, and I only later learned that I was assiduously protecting the wrong (i.e., non-data) side of CDs when I handled them.

- snopes

[Chloe]

Oh. Well in that case, I can take comfort in the fact that a) I'm not the only person who had it wrong, and b) it's only taken me 25 years to catch on.

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

I have a scratched CD I could test this one. I don't have any bananas though...

Thanks for the earworm.

"Yes, we have no bananas
We have-a no bananas today.
We've string beans, and onions
Cabashes, and scallions,
And all sorts of fruit and say
We have an old fashioned tomato
A Long Island potato
But yes, we have no bananas.
We have no bananas today."

[Zorro]

Originally Posted by Chloe

Oh. Well in that case, I can take comfort in the fact that a) I'm not the only person who had it wrong, and b) it's only taken me 25 years to catch on.

I'm slightly younger than the two of you, and I had the same confusion when CDs first came out.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Thanks for the earworm.

Better than "...have a banana!"

[Wolf333]

Originally Posted by snopes

It's not moronic at all. To people who grew up with records, it's quite logical to assume that the playing surface of a CD would be the side that faces up and has a label. I thought so when CDs first came out, and I only later learned that I was assiduously protecting the wrong (i.e., non-data) side of CDs when I handled them.

- snopes

The data on a pressed vd (not one you burned yourself) is actually on the underside of the label. Scratches on the "data" side of the cd can be repaired (if not too severe); but scratches on the label side, if they penetrate the label, can't.

The side WITH the label is side you need to protect the most.

ETA - as for the OP, in the step 4 of the article, it states -

Take a clean cotton cloth and wipe the entire surface of the CD / DVD. Be sure to apply moderate pressure while moving in a circular motion. This should be done for around 3 to 4 minutes.

Don't do this. As Snopes stated, the data is read from the inside out in a spiral motion. Wiping a disc in a circular motion can create scratches along the spiral, and those are the scratches you want most to avoid.

Always wipe from the center of the disc outwards.

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

Better than "...have a banana!"

Bar steward!

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rsc...6/STRAND2.html

Click to listen.

"All together..."

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by lazerus the duck

So it won't work on my gorillaz CD's then?

Or my Sleepytime Gorilla Musuem disk?

Originally Posted by llewtrah

Or my Sleepytime Gorilla Musuem disk?

Do you need to use a banana split on the arctic monkeys?

[Eddylizard]

Please do not mention 'The Banana Splits'. They are one of my childhood nightmares. Proto-Teletubbies on LSD. *Shiver*.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Please do not mention 'The Banana Splits'. They are one of my childhood nightmares. Proto-Teletubbies on LSD. *Shiver*.

Someone once sent me a mash-up of the Banana Splits theme, Plastic Bertrand and Elvis.

[Jay Tea]

Never had any issues with scratched discs, so alas no cunning fixes to suggest other than wipe em clean if needed, put em back in the case and Bob and Fanny are slightly familiar relatives who can always be relied upon to sort you out with a christmas present.

Still, I 'did' manage to put a dvd into a friends machine which crippled the player - turned out there was dog hair in the works - they have a long-haired animal and the fur got, well, everywhere