Can scanning an optical disc harm it?

[reddragon4000]

I have some discs that I wanna scan, but I don't know if the light hitting it will damage anything. I'm concerned about ROMs, but even more so for writables because I heard too much light can cause the dyes to change form or melt or something. And I don't know whether the data side will take the most damage or if the label side will (because the label is closer to the data pits than the actual data side). I have an Epson EcoTank 2500 for a scanner, which I know is not the best lol, but it's all I have.

 

[JuanMena]

Setting aside the question of why... you gotta remember that light is conformed of Infrared, which carries energy in form of heat, then the visible Spectrum and ends with Ultraviolet, which don't know if it can have some sort of energy.

So my gues is that your scanner will not do that much damage to an optical disc.

But again, might be wrong, and by all means do it and let us know the outcome.

 

[reddragon4000]

Holy crap, google already indexed the thread lol. I looked up "can scanning an optical disc harm it" and this was like the 5th result.

 

[Hayato213]

Should be safe.

https://www.discogs.com/group/thread/515086

 

[FAST6191]

Scanning it should have rather less effect than having it sit on a sunny windowsill.

Scanners are done on glass which blocks a few things and while some might use a cold cathode tube (pull one apart and you might have a little wiggly tube) which can spit out some higher energy photons it would still be many many many probably days of exposure to do anything serious. Handful of minutes if you decide to do a mega high res scan is as nothing. Indeed the bigger concern would be if the soft pad that typically makes up the top half of a scanner got some grit in it.

 

[captain_obvious]

While I'm not an expert, it probably does cause some wear and tear to the disks. I advise you to back them up regardless because all optical disks will eventually succumb to disk rot.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/cds-truth-cddvd-longevity-mold-rot/