Burnt CD's have short life

[manoasurfer123]

So I thought I would store all my digital pictures of my baby to CD so that he could see them later on in life.

I now find out that Burnt CD's have a Maximum shelf life of 5 years...(so this article states)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20060110/tc_pcworld/124312;_ylt=AtZjYKYakXIKcHsZCiAlZsGs0NUE;_ylu=X3oD MTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-


"Unlike pressed original CDs, burned CDs have a relatively short life span of between two to five years, depending on the quality of the CD," Gerecke says. "There are a few things you can do to extend the life of a burned CD, like keeping the disc in a cool, dark space, but not a whole lot more."


The problem is material degradation. Optical discs commonly used for burning, such as CD-R and CD-RW, have a recording surface consisting of a layer of dye that can be modified by heat to store data. The degradation process can result in the data "shifting" on the surface and thus becoming unreadable to the laser beam.

[Glen Miyashiro]

I just keep everything on my hard disk, and migrate to a bigger disk every few years. :D

[Leo Lakio]

I just keep everything on my hard disk
With a backup copy somewhere off-site, yeah?

[Glen Miyashiro]

With a backup copy somewhere off-site, yeah?Errrr, yeah. A backup. Yeah! I got one of those.

Somewhere.

I think.

:p

[Pomai]

Remember Video Laser Discs? The LP-sized ancestor of the DVD that revolutionized Karaoke.

My coworker has an extensive library, and says several of them have developed what's called "laser rot". You can't see it visually on the disc. But when you play it, there's a sort of "pixelated snow" on the screen of white specks. Similar to how an LP record "cracks & pops" when the grooves are interrupted or scratched.

Possibly over time, moisture was able to get between the layered coating and a sort of mold corrupted the binary data. Only a few of them have that problem though. Possibly from either poor manufacturing quality or storage conditions. Most are over 10 years old.

[Moto]

Some information on CD-R discs, the different brands and how to handle (or not handle) them for longetivity.

http://www.cdrinfo.com/forum/tm.asp?m=70060&mpage=1&key=𑡬
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/67909965/m/3100962175/ r/4220925175
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~talfred/cd-r.html
http://205.214.76.22/showthread.php3?t=568

http://www.computer-one.org/new-2646107-4562.html

The Mitsui's are always rated high, however, they are usually pricy. The Taiyo Yuden's are available under different manufacturer's (Fuji, TDK, etc.) the key is you need to look for the Made in Japan marking on the packinging. If it is Made in Taiwan, it is not going to be Taiyo Yuden.

[speedtek]

Yes the cheaper brands tend to fade out faster. Call the guys at Cosmo Media if you want to know which ones last the longest. keep them in Black DVD cases in a cool dry place if you need long storage. The compusa stuff last a year in the light if youre lucky. It starts to turn yellow after a few months.

[beaker]

Another thing to watch out for is that some retail DVDs from smaller companies are actually made with cheap green-ink DVD-R stock, as well. I had one go bad after 2-3 years, and there is hardly a scratch on it. Hrm. :/

[craigwatanabe]

Yes the cheaper brands tend to fade out faster. Call the guys at Cosmo Media if you want to know which ones last the longest. keep them in Black DVD cases in a cool dry place if you need long storage. The compusa stuff last a year in the light if youre lucky. It starts to turn yellow after a few months.

FYI: CC buys their cd's from Cosmo.

What's amazing is that I still got data on 3.5" floppies dating back almost 15-years and the data is still preserved as good as it was the day it was saved to disk.

I guess the venerable floppy has one edge over the technologically advanced optical disk. :D

[manoasurfer123]

I must add that this same concept applies to DVD's also!

[tutusue]

I must add that this same concept applies to DVD's also!
I need to write myself a note...
"Tutu, put all your DVDs and CDs in the closet. Don't leave 'em out on a bookshelf."

There...note pau. Now all I have to do when I get home is remember to read it! :rolleyes:

[manoasurfer123]

Just reving an older thread so that I don't have to keep getting questions...

Please readers... understand there is a big difference between PRESSED CD's/DVD's and BURNT CD's/DVD's.

I started burning CD's about 8 years ago...some of the stuff is losing it's quality....and some are totally gone...

[Da Rolling Eye]

How'bout those discs that Fuji or Kodak provide after processing digi pics? :confused: Better to run out and get a second printing before they go belly up? This is kind of disheartening after thinking all this high tech stuff could be used to preserve data. So much for expanding my DVD/CD collection too, then. What's the point? :(

[manoasurfer123]

How'bout those discs that Fuji or Kodak provide after processing digi pics? :confused: Better to run out and get a second printing before they go belly up? This is kind of disheartening after thinking all this high tech stuff could be used to preserve data. So much for expanding my DVD/CD collection too, then. What's the point? :(
that's not the way to expand your collection ;)

it's suppose to be a way of backing up the originals you purchase from a store in case you lose them or they get scratched up.... heheheh

Me winks about 10 times ;) ;)

[Miulang]

How'bout those discs that Fuji or Kodak provide after processing digi pics? :confused: Better to run out and get a second printing before they go belly up? This is kind of disheartening after thinking all this high tech stuff could be used to preserve data. So much for expanding my DVD/CD collection too, then. What's the point? :(
For the licensees of the digital content, it means that people who thought they were getting away with something by pirating material illegally aren't going to get away with it for long because if someone really wants to preserve a CD, they're still going to have to go to buy the real deal eventually. ;) Or keep burning additional illegal copies, which benefits the makers of the medium.

Miulang

[Da Rolling Eye]

that's not the way to expand your collection ;)

it's suppose to be a way of backing up the originals you purchase from a store in case you lose them or they get scratched up.... heheheh

Me winks about 10 times ;) ;)
OH! Sorry. Nonononononono! Aiya! I didn't mean that way. :o <LOL>
It just sounded like my legally purchased DVD's and CD's weren't going to last longer than me and if they weren't, no sense spend more money on them. Just rent and return.

My main concern was the discs from Long's Drugs photo dept., that have Melanie's Disney pics stored on, and future digi pics. Shoots, I can't even remember where I put the darned thangs so I can't even look to see what kind of CDR's they are.

So far, my only attempt at burning my own disc was for the puter restore info just in case this thing starts going bonkers on us. Fo real, das it. I used a Memorex CDR that my son gave us.