I have an audio disc that was handled by a little one & it now appears to have a few minor scratches. Normally I wouldn't be too concerned with it, but this is a rare imported CD that I got & I don't want to have to buy it again. It seems to have affected playback a little & skips at one point. Not always, but I also occasionally get a 'no disc' error message in the player when inserted. I'm gonna try to back it up to a CDR, but if that doesn't work, I was thinking of getting one of these disc repair kits. Do they really work? If so, which one is recommended?

I think you are better off trying to recover by making a copy. A repair kit will never get you back to the original. If this is an important disk, you should back it up anyway.

Try Exact Audio Copy first. This tool is free and depending on your hardware can do wonders. Use the autodetect features. If your drive supports C2 error reporting (see the EAC documentation) you may be OK.

The next line of defence is payware. CDRoller works for me. I have recovered disks that nothing else worked on.

If you are lucky, you will find someone who has a Plextor drive. Its audio extraction capabilities are extraordinary.

I would suggest you stay away from disc repair kits and use a commercial disc repair service. If you don't have one local to you, google for one online. Typically one CD will set you back $5 including shipping.