ED#111 : Checked Your CD-Rs Lately?

[Adrian Wong]

In the past, hard disk drives were small (in capacity) and costly. To make up for the lack of affordable storage, many turned to CD-Rs. As it became common to store backups and personal pictures, videos, etc. on CD-Rs, the lifespan of these discs became a concern.

According to manufacturers, CD-Rs should last for decades. Some even quoted an upper limit of 120 years based on accelerated aging tests! That sure is a long time, isn't it? But will CD-Rs really last that long?

Link : ED#111 : Checked Your CD-Rs Lately?

[zy]

yes, i try reducing the usage of CD/DVD now. i prefer to store on Hard Disk

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by zy

yes, i try reducing the usage of CD/DVD now. i prefer to store on Hard Disk

Me too. So much more convenient. Haven't checked any of my DVDs yet though...

[Papercut]

Nice article, sent it to my mum for her to read. Her new pastime is converting all the old VHS tapes onto DVD and she mistakenly assumes that this means the data is now immortal.

This issue also hits very close to home for me coz my original DVD copy of The Green Mile is now corrupted and it can't be more than a few years old. Ridiculous

[Chai]

Recordable disc medias are very unreliable. In fact, on average, they don't last more than 5 years, the reason is because most medias are very cheaply made. I have some good old Kodak gold disc, some of my earliest CDRs, and it's still working fine.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Papercut

Nice article, sent it to my mum for her to read. Her new pastime is converting all the old VHS tapes onto DVD and she mistakenly assumes that this means the data is now immortal.

This issue also hits very close to home for me coz my original DVD copy of The Green Mile is now corrupted and it can't be more than a few years old. Ridiculous

Damn, that sucks. Too bad there's no warranty against defective CDs or DVDs.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Chai

Recordable disc medias are very unreliable. In fact, on average, they don't last more than 5 years, the reason is because most medias are very cheaply made. I have some good old Kodak gold disc, some of my earliest CDRs, and it's still working fine.

I have those Kodak gold CD-Rs too. Unfortunately, two of them (from 2000) are partially corrupted.

[nateklomp]

Fairly consistently, discs burned at lower speeds (regardless of perceived quality or cost) will last longer in storage. Assuming that's true, older discs are already at an advantage lifespan-wise: your pre-2002 CD writer was a lot slower (4x, 8x, 12x -- versus 32x, 48x, 52x) and would have introduced far fewer errors into the burn, ensuring a longer lifespan.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by nateklomp

Fairly consistently, discs burned at lower speeds (regardless of perceived quality or cost) will last longer in storage. Assuming that's true, older discs are already at an advantage lifespan-wise: your pre-2002 CD writer was a lot slower (4x, 8x, 12x -- versus 32x, 48x, 52x) and would have introduced far fewer errors into the burn, ensuring a longer lifespan.

That's possible although the type of dyes used in older CD-Rs are less stable. Even so, most manufacturers quoted decades as the lifespan of the CD-Rs in those days.

[Adrian Wong]

BTW, some folks allege that the CD-Rs may not have been burned properly. The only way to do that would be to verify each CD-R after burning them.

Well, that was what I did with these earlier batches of CD-Rs. I have never had a failed verification though, which is why I did away with the verification test thereafter.

Also, CD rot was not a problem with these discs. There were no "holes" in the reflectivity of the media. Could be a dye failure but these discs have never seen daylight for most of the last 7-9 years.