So, having a bit of bad luck here. Noticed while doing some cleaning and organizing that a bag and box in the bottom corner of my closet were soaked with water. It seems that a pipe inside the wall is leaking or has burst, or that a unit above ours is overflowing, or water is seeping up, or something. We'll know more about the why of the matter once the landlord sends someone out to investigate the problem.

A bag of 53 DVDs is among the soaked items. The paper inserts and cardboard snap-case packages are ruined. The DVDs were partially shielded from the water by the packaging. The picture or logo side of most were exposed to some direct moisture, while the data sides suffered less.

I'm working on cleaning the mess up: removing the DVDs from the ruined packages, gently toweling off the picture/logo sides, air drying the little bits of moisture on the data sides, and placing the DVDs in paper sleeves. I'm working this weekend, so the going is slow: I haven't finished the above process for each DVD yet, and I haven't had time to test any of the DVDs in a player.

Anyone have any idea whether or not these DVDs are likely ruined or damaged? Does moisture or water exposure typically ruin DVDs? Even at a lowball estimate of $5 per DVD, we're looking at $265 worth of DVDs. We do have renter's insurance that might cover this type of damage if they've been ruined.

Thankfully, most of these are common titles, the rare gems of the collection being stored elsewhere in the apartment. If the DVDs are undamaged, I don't so much mind losing the cases, as I've been working on decasing and filing common titles anyways, but still... tis a mess. :-(

I believe water is safe, not sure about long exposure though, as it might do something to the 'logo' side, the layers might start to peel. From what i remember, underneath the logo/paint layer, there's a protective layer, and below that, theres the data layer, below that, is the polysomething, basically, the transparent 'plastic' disk thing. So, damaging the logo side will render the DVD useless. The bottom part is a bit more durable in my opinion, while scratches can render the disk unreadable in some cases, the data itself is not damaged.
TL;DR: I think people put a bit too much attention to the 'read' [bottom] side of their discs.

I'd be VERY careful with that air drier though, hot air seems much more dangerous. If it's cold air, You'll be ok, but i'd still advise gentle usage of a soft towel.

If is was just water and not a chemical solution, most likely DVDs will be undamaged.

Better don't dry them using hot air. High temperature may damage them.

If they are real printed DVD's theres a polycarb layer either side of the data there should be no problems running them unless they're unbalanced

Do you know how long they've been like that? Like Arteveld said, the printed side could be affected, which might make putting them in a drive that would then spin them at high speed a bad idea. So play it safe if you're unsure. You have every right to just put in a claim anyway.

I've had some dvd erm... exposed to (read: spilled with) water and it read just fine, though I carefully wiped the water with soft cloth and let it dry first before trying.

Was there any mold or anything on the data side? if not, it should be fine, just let it dry first :D

disclaimer: I am no expert on data storage obviously hehehe

Whether or not water damages a DVD depends on the duration of the exposure. A DVD that gets in the rain, or has a glass of water poured over it, is very unlikely to be damaged. However, prolonged exposure in a water bath _can_ damage DVDs. But there's really no way of knowing except trying them out, even if that means running 53 discs through a test procedure. If you have several DVD drives at your disposal, you may not wish to run these tests with the most expensive one.

In case you don't already have a disc diagnosis tool, Nero Disc Speed is a free one that can do a surface test. You can get it from this page - click the rightmost tab, then the download button at the bottom.

I wish you the best of luck. Being a games collector with decades worth of games stored on DVDs, these are the stories that send shivers down my spine.

Thanks for all the advice, guys. +1 to everyone here.

Unfortunately, I'm unsure how long the DVDs have been exposed. There isn't any mold on the discs themselves, but there is mold on the water-stained areas of the walls in the closet. This could have been a problem for some time because the affected area was hidden by the things stored in the closet.

I'm not using a machine to dry the DVDs: By "air drying", I meant letting the little bits of moisture on the data sides of the DVD evaporate naturally.

@Psyringe: Will a surface test tell me whether or not the data is undamaged, keeping me from having to watch each film individually to verify? Or would it just mean that the DVD is safe to use, that the plastic layer is unscratched and unwarped? Sorry for the very basic question, I'm not familiar with that kind of test.

@Navagon: Yeah, I suspect it's probably a good idea to file a claim regardless. Don't relish the idea of going through that process, but it's probably for the best.

Again, thanks guys! In addition to the advice, it's good to have a bit of sympathy. Makes me feel a little bit better.

Generally water should be safe, provided that it doesn't manage to get into the disc. I've never seen it myself, but that is a theoretical possibility which could lead to unreadable discs.

On a side note, this is why I use DVDisaster on all my CDROMs and rip all my DVDROMS to disc.

Should be OK; if they were soaked for any kind of extended time, they need long, slow drying. The polycarbonate material is not totally waterproof; it can pick up maybe 0.5% of its weight in water. Others have reported that soaked DVDs were unreadable immediately after surface drying but recovered after a week in open air.

CDs, because they have only a thin layer of plastic between the label side and the data layer, are more vulnerable, but they usually come through unharmed as well.

They're more likely to damage your DVD player than be damaged themselves. The logo printing can peel off, the rest is very well protected as long as it's just water (of course your water may have a lot of chlorine in it, not sure how that would treat the glue over an extended time period).

A surface test with Nero Disc Speed would not only tell you whether the files are damaged (and if so, which ones), you can even use it to determine the condition of the currently "good" sectors (to estimate whether the files should be relocated before the disc goes bad). It's a bit technical (and I don't understand all of it either, I've just recently found it), but it comes with a helpfile. My guess is that you will need to invest some time to get acquainted with the program and its terminology and settings, but that the investment will be worth it if you're going to check 53 DVDs.

Cool. Thanks, downloading now, will get acquainted with the program later this week after I've had the opportunity to dry each disc. Seems like it could save me a LOT of time in assessing the damage. I appreciate the advice. :-)

+1 to all of the other posts, too. Appreciate all the advice; I wouldn't likely have even considered the possibility of label peeling damaging the player.

Here's hoping that my insurance company isn't a pain in the ass to deal with and that the problem that caused this can be diagnosed and fixed without severe inconvenience... tho I suspect it'll throw a wrench in my schedule at the least... I work midnights, and the maintenance guys and any specialists needed most likely work only during the day and/or afternoon. Perhaps I'll use the time to get in a few GOGs if they keep me up, try to salvage something good from the situation.

Looked over our renter's insurance policy. We have a $500 deductible, chosen because we were mostly concerned about the larger furnishings and expensive electronics in case of a disaster or major damage. Even were we able to get $10 a DVD (53 x $10 = $530), it doesn't seem worthwhile to file a claim.

The issue was a leaking pipe. Here's the kicker: It seems to have been caused by the front wall of the apartment building pulling away and putting stress on the pipes. The leak has been fixed, but they'll have to address the larger structural issue.

On the plus side, most of the titles were the lesser members of the collection (most of the better films having already been filed safely elsewhere). However, Robocop, Die Hard, and The Devil's Advocate were among the casualties. :-(

Some of the discs have what seem to be microbubbles under the label. I'm guessing that these probably aren't safe even to test with Nero Disc Speed and should be discarded?

have at them with an old toothbrush that should be stiff enough to lift anything that would be thrown off by spinning...