CD-Rs may last only two years

[uncle_ziba]

For all of you digital fans the CD-Rs may be unreadable in two years

according to this Slashdot <a

href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/24/1253248&mode=thread&tid=126&tid=137&tid=198">

article </a>. This doesn't mean that an occasional CD will not last

five or ten years, but there is a high risk of losing data. What are

your thoughts on archiving digital photos?

[kelly_flanigan1]

Oh no; the dirty secret is getting published!<br><BR>Many of my oldest CD-R's were burned at a mighty 2X or 4X speed; on to name brand 5 dollar premium gold CD's. Several of the oldset ones are unreadable; or only parts of them; this is out of a set of 100's of CD's. Sometimes one can try many different readers; and pull out a few extra files. Currently I am rewritting many older CD's; as a way to preserve the data. <br><BR>Today most home amateurs/everyday users purchase the cheapie ammo pack CDR's; in the bubble; with no jewel cases. Then they burn them at max speed; and stack them like coffee coasters. I wonder how long these will last.

[sk_arts]

CDR's have always been known to be light sensitive. What this article does not tell you is how these test CD's were stored, in "normal" settings, i.e. laying out on the table for several hours and put back in the cases for several days, randomly being left in the computer for two weeks, cruel conditions, face up against high intensity UV/IR light being heavily read and used, or archival conditions, in temperature, humidity and light controlled conditions never being read until the test was over.

 

For now, treat your CDRs like your pantone swatch books, away from light and humidity.

 

I will read the babblefished dutch version later and write an update if necissary.

[keith_van_hulle1]

Those who are really into digital will take care to preserve their images properly (which may include multiple types of media). Those who take snapshots probably don't care any more about digital archival ability than they would about their negs. Anyone that thinks they can trust a single media for any long-term data storage needs to get educated.

 

I agree with Kelly in some wys. We've beat this to death with no right answer in sight. So what? It's as bad as Mac vs. PC and digital vs. film. Personally, I think digital is pretty cool and might have some growing pains. Big deal. I'll bet most here aren't that worried about it - they're smart enough to work around. Those that aren't here probably wouldn't understand the issue anyway.

[uncle_ziba]

A growing pain? The archiving problem exists as long as computers and it has not been solved for many decades.

[keith_van_hulle1]

Of course it's been solved. LAN admins have been saving data for years but the home user doesn't have a clue about this. You just have to spend the money and be willing to put the effort inot maintaining your data. A scheme for duping everything to secondary DASD and then a separate process for backuping up your primary stuff and your secondary on separate cycles and refreshing that periodically. CD's are only a convewnience for short-term movement.

 

Unfortunately, 99+% of users don't even come close to doing that. If the computer/camera makers were smart, they'd make it easy and cheap for everyone to do that. You priced a single 20gb DLT cart lately?

[emaxxman]

I really don't undertand what all the paranoia about cd-rs failing is about. I burn "master" copies of software discs for reproduction at work all the time. My group used to burn master discs on a 1x burner back when a single blank cdr was $75! That's right, $75.

 

Those discs and all the discs that I have ever written in the past 9 years are still readable. Some were written on name brand cd's. Quite a few personal discs were burned on generic brand cd's bought at dirt cheap prices. As long as you put them in a jewel case and handle them properly, there should be no reason for them to fail in any short period of time.

 

Unreadable in 2 years? That's a bunch of crap if you ask me.

[uncle_ziba]

Keith, you are describing a short term backup strategy or a disaster recovery plan, but it's not archiving. The library of congress employs quite a few archivists and they still haven't figured out how to preserve digital information. For example pick a software program that was written 10-15 years ago and try to locate a source code for it. Same thing with photos - you look at 4x6 picture 10 years from now and try to find a corresponding file - not going to happen.

[kelly_flanigan1]

All the slick answers are nice; until one personally has some data lost. Rewriting 1/2" magnetic tape every 5 to 7 years has been used longer than any other backup method; and goes back to the 1960's at least. The optical data storage disks I worked with at one of the seven drarfs lasted only a few weeks; with some batches; this was in the late 1970's. Todays gold CD's have the potential to last a long time; if the process was well controlled. If you are unlucky; and get a bad batch; they will degrade a lot quicker. One should monitor the readability of ones CD's; to see if they are "going south". The raid using a huge drive is always brought up; and useful if a drive set is available. My collection is to big for a hard drive; since my data collections go back a long time. <BR><BR>I had to do a post mortem on a raid set that got struck by lightning; and most all the data was lost. At our disk drive company; the raid managers had to eat crow; and explain to the customers MIS manager; of what happened. All the fancy trick protection by our customers EMF/static guru still didn't entirely save the day. The disks had flash marks; where the heads were during the pulse. <BR><BR>

[bill_tuthill]

All my 5-year-old cheapo TDKs are still readable.

One time I had data errors, but after wiping the data surface with a

damp cloth, the errors went away. I'm very skeptical that gold

CDRs are any better, because I surmise the plastic will degrade

before the aluminum (or whatever) layer starts corroding. Oddly

it seems that pressed CDs are more likely to have data errors,

contrary to what the industry asserted 5 years ago.