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Do Burned CDs Have a Short Life Span?

Started by Lord_of_the_Dense, January 11, 2006, 12:58:51 PM

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Lord_of_the_Dense

Optical discs may not be your best bet for storing digital media long term, expert says.

Opinions vary on how to preserve data on digital storage media, such as optical CDs and DVDs. Kurt Gerecke, a physicist and storage expert at IBM Deutschland, has his own view: If you want to avoid having to burn new CDs every few years, use magnetic tapes to store all your pictures, videos and songs for a lifetime.
 
"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.

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Ed

Thanks for the heads-up, LotD - that's something I've never even thought about :scratch:  I always assumed once you'd burnt something to CD it was there for the duration, and much more reliable than magnetic tapes and disks :huh:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Geoff_N

Magnetic tapes might not last as long as implied either.  Rummaging in my attic I unearthed a box of tapes I made as a kid. They were all brittle, although just about playable.

If you really want data and images to be placed on a media you want to preserve for a looooooooooooooong time then consider what exists today that was created ages ago. I think they were called paper and ink. :/

Geoff

SharonBell

"Be good and you'll be lonesome." Mark Twain

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Ed

True, Geoff :afro:  I'm going to transcribe all my most important stuff to cave paintings :azn:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

doolols

I do backups of the whole of my writing folders - both laptop and desktop. At less than a quid for each, I consider it worthwhile having a new backup every month. Labelled, and stored. Then, it doesn't matter if it degrades on the older disks - I still have a fresh backup of my old stuff if I need it. My writing folder on this machine is 105MB - I could store six times this amount before having to start segregating what I wanted to keep and what I didn't.

Just backup the whole folder every month. You know it makes sense.
My name is Gerald, and I am a writer (practicing for AA - Authors Anonymous)