Labelling CD-Rs

[john_bright]

I read somewhere recently that labelling CD-Rs can reduce their life-

length, so I did a search on here and there seems to be mixed

opinions, especially with regards to which pens to use (sharpies

etc).

 

I have quite a number of CD-Rs that I have labelled with small very

light tacky labels. Do you think it would be wise to re-copy these

and mark them some other way.

 

Many thanks for any advice

[ellis_vener_photography]

labels are a ba d deal. the adhesive can fail when ehe disk gets heated and small

labels unbalance the disk. I use the "Maxell Disk Writer" pen which I buy at

OfficeMax.

[tony_terlecki]

And if you want to be especially paranoid don't even write on the area of the disk where the data is stored but around the clear plastic part near the centre spindle hole.

 

While we're on the subject of CDRs does eveyone know that the fragile surface of a CDR is not the underside where the laser focuses through but the top side (sometimes referred to the label side)? So if you are going to sling your CDRs on a table make sure you do it label-side up!

[cg]

I use the Epson Stylus 900 with printable CD's made by Taiyo

Yuden. The printer does a fine job and CD's look very

professional. TY CDs are very highly recommended for archiving.

[phil_v.]

IMHO, most of this is unfounded... While I don't know about adhesive labels on CDs, I've been using a Sharpie to label my CDs for over 9-years without even a hint any difficulties. After annotating the CD (using a Sharpie), I just slip the CD into the plastic sleeve of a CD-wallet. And yes, I have retrieved and read 9-year old CDs that were labeled in this manner without any read-errors!

 

However, I should mention that I have never used off-brand CDs; sticking with top name brands such as Maxell, TDK, etc.

[kennethbowen]

Another, "All Praise the Sharpie." I store all manner of data, and have for many years, using the cheapest CDR's I can find, labeled with the King of All Markers, the Sharpie. I just read a mail back-up from five years ago, stored in a cheap CD sleave in a file folder (Nasty, non-archival material). It mounted fine. Don't believe the hype

[emre]

I myself was going to ask the same question, but I found <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=001xXL">this </a> thread: http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=001xXL

[jon_austin]

With regard only to labels, if the "small" labels you apply to your CD-Rs are not circular and centered on the discs relative to their spindle holes, you may encounter problems when spinning the discs at high speeds, due to lack of rotational balance. Whether or not you ever experience such problems depends on maximum rotational speed relative to the mass of the labels, the label position on the discs and the tolerance of your disc drive mechanism.

 

I first began applying full-size labels to my CD-Rs several years ago, when all I was burning was audio CDs (1x playback) and my burner's top speed was only 4x. A failed disc wasn't the end of the world, because it was only audio ripped from one of my old LPs (no risk of irreplaceable data loss).

 

In the interim, I've continued to use these full-sized labels on more and more data projects (like digital photo backups), with increasingly faster burners (currently using a 24x model). And with data discs (unlike audio), high rotational speeds are experienced during read as well as write operations.

 

I've never lost any data due to label-related problems (label balance, adhesive oozing, adhesive failure). Like another poster here, I use only brand-name discs (several brands) and labels (Neato). And the poster who stated that the label side of CD-Rs is more fragile than the data side is absolutely right. Another good reason for using full-sized labels: more protection for your data!

[john_bright]

Thanks for the response guys. So it it would seem to be more of a centrifugal problem, rather than contamination damaging the back of the CD-R disc. If this is the case, maybe I can carefully remove the labels I mentioned and mark them in the centre with an appropriate pen. I'll give this some more thought.

 

Thanks again

[ray]

<em>If this is the case, maybe I can carefully remove the labels I mentioned and mark them in the centre with an appropriate pen.</em>

<p>

Extremely bad idea. Any attempt to peel of labels will probably pull off the reflective coating thereby rendering the CD-R useless.

[john_bright]

Shoura. Point taken.

 

Many thanks

[bill_tuthill]

Yes I think you should re-copy.

Then write your label along the outside boundary of the new disc.

Discs that aren't full have no data there -- tracks are layed down

concentrically starting in the middle. I like TDK discs,

which have curved outer lines showing where to write.

[john_bright]

Just to confuse the issue a bit more, I've just noticed that on some 'Grundig' Discs I used a while back, they actually provided four lines to write on, across the recording area on the bottom 25% of the disc. These were silver finished.