View Full Version : Recordable media lifespan
holden
01-12-2006, 04:47 AM
Figured this was the relevant place for this, since many of you probably use Cds for backing up files:
http://msn.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124312,00.asp?GT1=7645
This confirms a fear of mine, that CDs are not the lifelong data storers they claim to be. Sucks if i end up losing all the music i've put on CD-R, often because i felt it was superior to the cassette versions i used to own! Ironic. A related concern is for everyone making Cds of digipix...without a hardcopy print, you could lose everything!
Discuss?!:confused:
esaias
01-26-2006, 03:25 AM
Most of my CD-R from the 96-00 era have already detoriated to unusable state, CD-R's are bad media. If you have some really important data you want to back up for sure, go for DAT/DLT tape, they're usually promised to maintaid their data for 30+years if stored properly. Cheaper and easier method is store everything on a good quality harddrive and store that in a good place.
DVD-R is worse backup media than CD-R beacuse it is more sensitive to physical damage.
Shiver runs down on my spine because I haven't backed up my studio computer over a year :E
-Tomi
votingfloater
01-26-2006, 03:38 AM
Arsebiscuits! Looks like I'll be shelling out for a new HD then...
esaias
01-26-2006, 05:02 AM
Make sure that it is not Matrox :P
Samsung or Seagate is a good choice.
-Tomi
viddy
01-26-2006, 06:31 AM
Data is rediculous! I'm running about 500 gigs across multiple drives in HD space, and I've already filled it up! No only should I look into getting another drive for more work space but a very large raid array for archival purposes only.
This is getting really expensive. :mad:
there seem to be contradictions: on this forum (http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-10149-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=152618&messageID=1698511&tag=nl.e497) people say there's a lifetime of decades?
King of Snake
01-27-2006, 05:03 AM
Most of my CD-R from the 96-00 era have already detoriated to unusable state, CD-R's are bad media.
-Tomi
afaik most of my cd-r's from that era are still working fine
I don't really use them that often so maybe they've all turned bad in the meantime though ;)
holden
01-27-2006, 08:42 AM
there seem to be contradictions: on this forum (http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-10149-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=152618&messageID=1698511&tag=nl.e497) people say there's a lifetime of decades?
Yeah, it's hard to know for sure, because the tests of lifespan are obviously under the worst conditions and accellerated, then extrapolated. But they raise a lot of good points...e.g. quick burns being less stable, cheapo-brand Cds having inferior dyes, solvents from markers degrading the more-fragile topside of the disk, etc.
i'm very careful with my CD collection, because i've put a lot of time into it. But the way technology is going, i fear i will have to transfer everything to another format eventually anyway...just hope the data's still there when i go to do this! :eek: :cool:
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