Any advice on getting a broken disc to work?

I was playing Assassin's Creed and I nudged my 360 over a bit for better placement (it was overheating on the carpet) and I heard a very nasty sound. The game froze and I opened the disc tray to see the disc scratched, but only on the outer edges of the ring. I put it in, and I get a screen saying "please insert dvd" assuming it doesn't work. I know most likely ima have to cough up $30 for a new one, but does anyone has any tricks that might make the game possibly run again? 

I'm not sure, you could get one of those crack filling disk cleaners, but I find that they don't really work.

Hit it with a sledgehammer. Works every time.

Try going to a game store, some of them have machines that shave a very thin layer of the disc off so the scratches go in most cases, they don't guarantee it'll work for circular ones like that but it's only a couple of pounds in most places here, and it's worked for my busted games every time.

Borrow a working copy of the game from a friend, install it to your hard drive, then you can play your copy off the hard drive. 

" Hit it with a sledgehammer. Works every time. "

" @natetodamax said:

" Hit it with a sledgehammer. Works every time. "

That wasn't the least bit original.  I don't think you even get points for effort =/Anyway, your best bet from a pennysavers point of view is to do what dsplayer said.  The disk cleaning services provided by GameCrazy and EB Games and those places don't really work, at least in my experience.  "

You can look at getting your disk resurfaced from a gaming store; gamestop/ebgames no longer does it to my knowledge. You can send it away to get it resurfaced as well; it'll be like 5 bucks + shipping or so.

You can also try the toothpaste trick; it worked for me with my copy of RE2 for PS1. Take white toothpaste (none of that gel shit) and rub it all over the bottom of the disk, let it sit for 5 minutes, using cool water rub all the toothpaste off, towel dry the disk (PAT IT, DO NOT RUB), let it sit for another minute or two and pop it back in. Worked for my freezing RE2.

I know of a guy who swears by spraying the disc with Lynx (Americans - read: Axe, I believe?) Deodorant. Strangely works too.

Put some white tooth paste on it and scrub it in the crack and then wash it off.

" @kmdrkul said:

" @natetodamax said:

" Hit it with a sledgehammer. Works every time. "

That wasn't the least bit original.  I don't think you even get points for effort =/Anyway, your best bet from a pennysavers point of view is to do what dsplayer said.  The disk cleaning services provided by GameCrazy and EB Games and those places don't really work, at least in my experience.  "

who are you to judge other users posts, and why do we care about your judgements? "

" I know of a guy who swears by spraying the disc with Lynx (Americans - read: Axe, I believe?) Deodorant. Strangely works too. "

Ima try the toothpaste trick, if not the switching it with a blockbuster rental idea sounds good too. Thanks guys. 

The toothpaste trick did nothing more than waste a good amount of toothpaste... I think Ima just switch it with a blockbuster rental. Unless anyone has some other creative ideas. 

I once had a teacher who told the class that a good way to fix scratched CDs was to place them in boiling hot water for a couple seconds. I've never heard anyone else ever speak of such a technique, and I've personally never tried it. Really, it seems to me like something someone would say as a joke, but this teacher was a pretty serious guy, so I don't know...

Oh, and dude, if you switch it with a Blockbuster rental, you're truly a jerk. I rent games from Blockbuster, man. Don't screw them and their customers over because you scratched your disc. Also, dude... $30 for a new copy of Assassin's Creed? Yeah right. I've been seeing that thing for $20 tops for the last year or so.

Well I guess wash the toothpaste off it now if you can, I have heard mixed reviews about that working, but I know it works for filling in small holes in your wall XD.

Depending on where you are, blockbusters might do disc repair. The one by me does in calgary. Failing that just rent and switch, or just rent or borrow it from someone and install to harddrive, then it wont matter if your disc is scratched. Also, try and keep your xbox off the carpet always, itl just get dust and fluff in there and is gonna shorten its lifespan, Put it on a box or something, or a stone tile if you wanna be fancy =P Anything non carpety.

Oh also, you can get disc fixing stuff at most game selling places, like EB or futureshop/bestbuy. The best one is called... MagicDoctor or something like that, something to do with those 2 words haha, I hear good stories about it.

Also also: be careful with that toothpaste dvd haha, don't want to get any of that inside your xbox or that will be a nightmare, might even void your warrenty because microsoft are dicks about everything like that. Careful if you wash it, damp cloth or toilet paper will do fine, kleenex is even better.
PRO TIP: Never clean a disc with a microfibre cloth, I have one for my plasma tv and I tried cleanind a game with it and it scratched the shit out of it lol. Not to mention the worst feeling on my fingers. GAH hate that feeling!

I know you're gonna think I'm crazy, but Pledge works better than anything I've tried.

you can try the rented game switch, but here's a slight variation:

-buy the game @ game stop. get the "insurance" they offer (lol)
-switch disks, return the same day saying the disk doesn't work, get a new unopened copy.
-return the unopened copy.

would this work? or would your receit and their computer records tell the tale? Still, don't consumers have the right to return merchandise within a set amount of time if it is in it's original state? So there shouldn't be a problem with the last step...

edit: might work better at future shop or best buy, where the return policy is a little more lax?

Putting it in the microwave usually works for me.

Is there anyway I can just save the game to my hdd and play it completely from the 360 hdd? I mean no disc needed. The disc like isn't just glitchy from being scratched, I mean it's completely unreadable, Idk what happened to it in the 360 disc drive but it's not like scratched, it's pretty much scraped, I'd have to get a layer shaved off or something. So if anyone knows how to completely play a game off the hdd than I can just borrow it from a friend and do that... other wise ima try a disc repair or switch it with a blockbuster rental as worst case scenerio. 

Clear hair gel.  Thin layer wipe of excess, let it dry, sometimes will work.  Have had success with game cds, and music cds.

I bought something called DvdDr from my local Best Buy and I was able to fix my CoD4, GTA4, and my friends GTA4.

Rub a bar of soap on the disc,wait and wipe the surface clean.Worked for my halo 3 disc.

As a few others here have said you might wanna go to somewhere that "fixes" broken discs for a small fee. However, I say never underestimate the power of cleaning a disc; I had a non-working copy of SoulCalibur IV for my 360 but after 45 minutes (yes seriously) of rubbing the disc clean it did actually start playing again.

You can pick up a buffer for real cheap, and they really do work. My idiot brother knocked over my 360 with oblivion still running in there. Scratched it to HELL, wouldn't read the isc at all. A GOOD bit of buffing it with the disc doctor and it workes like new! Still use it to this day. Doesn't look pretty, but it works.

And don't do the switch thing. That is an ass thing to do. You scratched your disc. If you do that, that'll be one less copy of the game in your store for others to enjoy. Plus, its Assassin's Creed, its 20 bucks new. Used its probably dirt cheap.

"Borrow a working copy of the game from a friend, install it to your hard drive, then you can play your copy off the hard drive.  "

" Borrow a working copy of the game from a friend, install it to your hard drive, then you can play your copy off the hard drive.  "

To answer your questions; You can delete the game off the HDD afterwords and will still keep your savedata =P once the game is installed, putting your disc into the xbox should still allow you to start playing it even though your xbox doesn't read that the disc is in the drive at all, it still works usually. Also there is no way to play a game without having the disc in the xbox, because of the obvious reason: rent a new game for the $8 and install to drive? save $62? Obviously that would kill the industry.

Uhmmm so yeah, try hairspray, basically any kind of liquid or gel that will dry clear. Your filling in the scratches so that the laser deflects off the disc properly and can read it. just remember to wipe it so its clean after you spray it.

Also as said above, Dvd Doctor or Disc Doctor is what its called, those are dirt cheap =P Or just buy a new or used copy of the game. Or just borrow it and finish it off, its not that long of a game, and its pretty crappy because of the extreme lack of variation =P