Burnt CD Life

[mdaugher1811]

I was wondering if anyone has heard the effective life of an average burnt cd is only 2-5 years depending on its' exposure to UV light, handling, etc as well as the quality of the cd itself? This story was reported on the CBS News this week.

This makes me rethink my long-term storage plans.....

Regards, Matt

[Mary]

Hi Matt
I have been reading similar reports for the past few years and I am not sure too much has changed. When we were saving on floppy disks I always suggested in my classes to refresh them every couple of years. The same for zip disks which were really problematic. Photographs and negatives themselves have to be stored carefully and inspected for deterioration. I am refreshing ours by digitizing them. I think the key thought is nothing is forever but select the best quality media you can afford and treat all your stored items carefully.:)

[troush]

Matt,

I think the government has done some testing. There was a thread on another forum. Sorry, I didn't follow the link. A google search might turn up something. (I back up to an external hard drive for now. Hopefully the main hard drive and it won't die at the same time.) Some brands are better than others. Something like "government testing of removable storage media" as your search...

-Trish

[Wendy]

Hi Matt ...

A while back there was a lot of discussion on this and I suppose that we have to accept that any type of backup media is going to have a "shelf life" ... but it does seem pretty short !

When this came up the first time it made me rethink backing up and I moved to external hard disks .. the price has come down such very much now ... and it a lot quicker too.

Wendy

[troush]

Matt,

I found it (over at Nikonians.org):

"Here are links to the best information about CD-R and DVD-R longevity I think you'll find based on studies by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST):

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/gipwg/StabilityStudy.pdf (the conclusion on page seven is the most useful for me)

And this guide to jointly published by NIST and the uncil on Library and Information Resources http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec1.html"

The whole thread is:

http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID11/15116.html

The gist of it is that they suggested MAM-A (Mitsui) disks, especially Gold Archive, and to never use a CD-RW for anything important. Someone else said they have had good luck with TDK disks as well.

-Trish

[Diana]

Here's a link I posted earlier in another thread to a PC World article:

http://msn.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124312,00.asp

Diana

[mdaugher1811]

Thanks everyone for you replies and work researching the links.

Very helpful...


Regards,
Matt