Do Burned CDs Have a Short Life Span?

[Steve R Jones]

Do Burned CDs Have a Short Life Span?

"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.

[judge john]

or buy a bigger HD?

[104456]

Gerecke suggests using magnetic tapes, which, he claims, can have a life span of 30 years to 100 years

He obviously never worked in a video store LOL

[Ridgerunr]

This guy needs to go back to his desk in the basement with the single lightbulb over his desk and continue grumbling etc.

I've had commercially bought VHS(magnetic)tape movies begin to go bad after just a few years. And they were kept away from magnetic sources.

I saved many of these by transferring them to 4.5Gb DVD media.

Duuuuuuhhh...

http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq07.html#S7-5

[Welshjim]

One view
http://www.practicalpc.co.uk/computi...drlifespan.htm
Many views
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...q=life+span+cd
Since CD's have only been around about 20 years, no one knows for sure. And CD-R's will apparently have a longer life than CD-RW's.
Seems that CD's are a better bet than magnetic tape.
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...+magnetic+tape

[Nix]

Kurt Gerecke, a physicist and storage expert at IBM Deutschland, has his own view

1. Well I'm guessing that IBM make magnetic tapes and not CDRs so have a vested interest in putting out this propoganda.

2. I don't know how old he is but presumambly with his qualifications, a reasonable age so would probably have people storing the info on punch cards if it were possible. LOL

3. You only have to look at some of the old movies they find in archives to see what crap quality they are after not even a century in some cases.

4. Don't mention the war

[shiva_42]

1. Well I'm guessing that IBM make magnetic tapes and not CDRs so have a vested interest in putting out this propoganda.

2. I don't know how old he is but presumambly with his qualifications, a reasonable age so would probably have people storing the info on punch cards if it were possible. LOL

3. You only have to look at some of the old movies they find in archives to see what crap quality they are after not even a century in some cases.

4. Don't mention the war

Hee hee:

Well... a few points here:

1) Anybody that can pass a high-school level science class in Germany is automatically a physicist.

2) IBM doesn't manufacture optical burners, but I'm guessing they probably have their hands in the hardware AND media for tape drives.

3) This guy has obviously NEVER accidentally set one of his backup tapes on top of a stereo speaker (lost 5 YEARS of backup that way once back in the late '80s), nor had a wife that thought cute refrigerator magnets also looked cool in the computer room.

4) Nix, what do you have against all us "old guys" anyhow? hee hee

[SuperSparks]

Well all I'm going to say is that TDK guarantee the CDR's that I use will keep their data for 100 years. And if they don't, I'll come back and haunt them

[jmtjet]

When I read that I was wondering who this guy worked for.

[104456]

Well all I'm going to say is that TDK guarantee the CDR's that I use will keep their data for 100 years. And if they don't, I'll come back and haunt them

Hmm reminds me of the ink-jet photo paper that was supposed to be colour fast for tens of years the manufacturer having tested the paper under glass.These claims were later shown to be exaggerated the paper losing a great deal of colour when left in open sunlight for much shorter periods .

[SuperSparks]

Yes, I have to say that I do take those claims with a very large pinch of salt. Having said that, I haven't yet had any CDR or DVDR go bad on me in the 5 years that I've had burners, even using some real cheapo media. So I'm hoping that the good quality discs like TDK will be good for a long time even if they don't last as long as they say.

[ProfessorU]

I once owned a 2x CD-R drive. I was told then that standard discs would last 75 years and I could expect 100 years from premium discs. When I read that article about 2-3 year life I was immediately suspicious. CD-RW is definitely shorter lifespan.

I think that the new 52x drives writing on discs made from aluminum foil and plexiglass get a significantly shorter life. If you want to archive your data, burn at slower speeds on nice media.

[bvanpelt]

Both our machines at home have big drives. Each has a directory called /Data.
I cross-copy the /Data directories, then copy the combined data to a NAS drive (network) that's normally not connected to anything or powered up. My
REALLY important subdirectories get zipped and copied to a USB Flash drive that I wear with my badge to work. And it gets copied to my machine at work.
Who needs CD's? I do worry about a lightning strike smacking my NAS drive...

[HAN]

Add me to the list that magnetic tape is NOT the thing to use to long-term archive important data. While the underlying mylar ribbon, the binder and the magnetic particles themselves have improved over the years, if it's not stored under very optimal conditions (temp and humidity), it can go bad rather quickly. Just look up some horror stories from the audio industry and read how some tapes must be (literally) baked in an oven to give one last playback...before they are permanently unplayable.

Now I am no expert... just a regular user. But knowing what I know about magnetic media (DLT tapes, 1 million passes. Yeah right!), I would feel better about optical media over the long haul.

Oh, and as said above, having 2 copies of the same data would be a good idea too. And NO RW media!

**EDIT Spelling!