Seeking advise/your experience with wanting a to handle CDs/records without damaging them?


I hope you have not had this problem, but I would guess some have. For all time I have had problems with how "others" handle my music collection. Records are more delicate and CDs are not "perfect sound forever". Scratches, glazed donut covered fingers and the like will, and do, cause problems.

My recent experience is with a child’s mate and CDs......and yes, I now have CDs that skip/miss track and more. In looking at these disks, it is all too clear to see the problems, including food residue..........."exasperated sigh"

That headline should be "wanting others".....cannot go back and correct headlines....dang.
whatjd
I keep al my CDs ripped on HD with backup copies.  That way I can always recreate CD for myself or copy for a friend.  There are ways of polishing the surface, but I would first rip it with good program to get perfect copy (I use XLD on MAC with 200 retries max).  That way you can get brand new CD (on CD-R).
Food residue... you can clean the disc with soap and water. Lay the CD on a table with a towel underneath it. Use a soft cloth or sponge, although a sponge might not remove dried food.
If that works, then apply a cleaner/preservative for CD's.


Important - when cleaning, wipe CD from inside hole to outside radially.  Avoid motion along the track.  Error correction works up to about 4mm scratches along the track.  Above that, up to about 8mm, it will interpolate missing data and it will start dropping data (gaps) on scratches longer than 8mm.