Robin Hoods Playground

Oh boy, this just happened. My children are (or were) playing Guitar Hero in their room a minute ago...they are also playing the computer (which is right next to the Xbox 360) and my daughter accidentally knocks over the 360 while my son is playing Guitar Hero (it doesn't get knocked over all the way on its side, it gets knocked over about half way till it hits the TV stand). A minute later the game stops and gives the message that it can't read the DVD, to try cleaning it, restart the console, etc. My son cleans the DVD, restarts the console...but the game won't get past the intro. So he calls me.

We look at the DVD and it has what appears to be a ring of scratches going all the way around the outer part (see picture). What to do? Our original copy of Forza 2 also has this ring around the outer part of the DVD...but it plays most of the game, only certain levels and menus won't play on it...don't know if the 360 was knocked over while Forza 2 was playing or if it just happened on its own.

At any rate this really makes me feel like I should have tried to flash the 360 earlier and made backups only to play! Or tried to get some protective stickers/labels for CDs/DVDs...you know, the kind that protect them from scratches while still letting you use them?--does anyone know where to get those?

Well, there isn't much you can do to fix the disk, sadly to say. About all you can do is to try one of those disk re-surfacing things. I think Microsoft may have a disk replacement programs but I'm not real sure. You'll have to check on xbox.com for that.

But, I did see a preventative measure for this very thing over on llamma.com have a read on the article here: http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/Re ... -Drive.htm

Basically, you take the drive apart and put some small rubber strips in certain locations on the lid of the dvd drive so when the dvd runs into a situation that causes it to pitch, it hits those rubber bumpers instead of the dvd's laser head.

I saw some disk protectors at walmart just the other day. Not sure if you have a walmart around where you are, but you might try there if you do.

I doubt it will work, but try backing the disc up...

I've had games in the past that wouldn't boot, but I could rip them and the resulting backup worked fine. If you do try this I recommend dumping with XBC, as this will give you a detailed error if an LBA sector of the disc cannot be ripped.

I don't know if that scratch is a bit much, but it's got to be worth a shot...

My original 360 (sam MS25) used to that discs if I let it...
If I exited a game to Dashboard while it was still spinning then it would make an evil grinding noise as it slowed down. After it happened twice I soon learned

Yeah, my kids are off limits from my originals! You never know what can happen. If this happened to a back up, you could do another in about 20 minutes if you still had the iso.

Wow Sadalius, thanks a lot for that link...absolutely amazing! (I tried the link yesterday right after you posted, but the site was down...just watched their video demos though and)...it is exactly what I needed to save those games from being ruined! The tipping that they showed in their video is exactly what happened here. I'm going to get those pads for sure! I'll also check my local Wal-Mart for the protective labels (couldn't find them for beans when I Googled up a storm yesterday, I found them a month ago online and on eBay too...but can't remember the brand name and they're hard to find otherwise).

I haven't modded a single console yet because I only have Hitachi drives...but I should go ahead and get a Kreon drive right away off of eBay to see if I can backup the Guitar Hero and Forza games even though they're scratched. I have the SATA controller, just came in a few days ago. Now all I need is a DD-WRT compatible router, Kreon drive and a new 360 with BenQ or Samsung drive and I'll be set! I bought some Verbatim DL DVDs last month and later read some threads about the Indian Verbatim DVDs were worse than the Singapore ones...I'm pretty sure mine are the Indian ones...shouldn't be a problem though, right?

the disc should be fine just burn slow
no faster than 2.4x speed