CD-ROMs and DVDs are everywhere, there is just no getting away from them. The chances are that if you are an avid gamer or movie watcher, you've probably got more than your fair share of them. I myself have hundreds of CDs and with such a volume it's inevitable that one or two will get badly scratched. But what do you do when your favourite game no longer works or that favourite DVD movie refuses to play? Well I don't know about a DVD movie but in the case of a game, it can cost around £10 minimum to get it replaced by the games publisher. If it's an old game though this usually just isn't possible so you would have lost that favourite game.

A couple of weeks ago now we were given the chance to test a new disk recovery service by Scratch Busters. Scratch Busters claim a staggering 99% success rate when repairing badly scratched disks. The way it works is that you pop along to the website and request a freepost envelope for your disk. When you receive it, you pop your disk in the envelope and send it off to Scratch Busters. On receiving the disk Scratch Busters check the degree of damage, repair it and before sending it back to you they make sure it's fully working. If they don't manage to repair the disk you don't pay a penny. What more could you ask?

Of course you're probably wondering how they repair the disk? Essentially Scratch Busters skim fine layers from the disk to remove the scratches. According to Scratch Busters a disk is made up of 130 to 150 microns and each repair skim to your disk only removes between 5-10 microns so in theory the disk can be repaired multiple times, which is excellent news if you're rather clumsy with your disk or you have children that like to play with them. Scratch Busters cannot repair cracked disks or disks where the data foil has been pierced from either side of the disk.

Well now we get to the important question, does it work? Well my young daughters have a game they are really fond of called Laura's Happy Adventures. For the last year now they have been unable to play the game as it was covered in scratches and no computer in our house could read the disk at all. We decided to send this disk off as we have not been able to buy a replacement for it. We sent the disk off in the freepost envelope on Friday 5th of December and on Tuesday 9th December it came back to us and I'm happy to say it's as good as new and the disk is completely scratch free. To repair a games disk costs £3.99 (+ P&P @ 60p) which makes the service incredible value for money. A DVD film costs £2.99 which again is superb value and only a fraction of the cost of buying a new one. A full price list can be found here.

Deaf Gamers Rating: 10/10
If that all important disk is scratched and no longer works it's brilliant to know that a service as good as this exists. For a fraction of the cost of a direct replacement, Scratch Busters will make your old disk as good as new. An excellent service.