Lifespan of CD-R controversy...........

[Dooin' it]

Well, I honestly can't remember where I just read this (maybe here?) but regardless.........it seems that people are arguing that CD-R's are not the "end all" storage solution for "stuff"....(or specifically, in my case...PHOTOS).

Anybody know technical details about whether this stuff is true/false/otherwise?? After I fill up a CDR-sized folder on my HD, I usually burn 'em to CDR and throw 'em in my fireproof safe. But if I go to take that CDR out 10years from now & there's nothing there due to age, well.......that'd kinda' suck donkey......well, blue-whale actually!!!!

i heard its up to 10 years last time i heard.

btw throwing cd-rs into a fireproof box is not smart, if you do have a fire the cd-rs will melt.

[batmeat]

50 yr life span is what I've read.

[phenious]

I thought I read they are good for 100 but hey that was a few years ago and I dont really remember... Tips I do remeber are dont apply an adhesive lable you print on... and dont write on the CD its self. put it in a container and write on that instead.

-: phenious :-

[griobhta]

I remember a fairly well respected speaker at a conference was reported to have said that cd'r storage is good 'forever or 5 years, whatever comes first'

I have had cdr blanks that have lasted less than 6 months now do not trust any that i have

g

[Dooin' it]

Originally posted by GroundZero3
i heard its up to 10 years last time i heard.

btw throwing cd-rs into a fireproof box is not smart, if you do have a fire the cd-rs will melt.

So would throwing them in the freezer help?? Maybe keeping them out of the fire-proof safe so they melt faster & more definitively?? LOL!!!

10-100 years!! That's a pretty rough estimate......

[osprey4]

If you ask people who do data archiving at big companies, they typically do data checking every year and copying to new CDs every two years. For personal stuff, I would probably copy to a new CD every five years.

By the way, check out this article about this issue, including mention of a company that is offering a 100-year guarantee on their CD-Rs.

[DVNT1]

You can find many varying reports of CD-R lifespan. I wouldn't know whom to trust... except perhaps Mythbusters http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/my...thbusters.html

[bailey]

it depends on which cd media your useing.

the gold -gold color disks are the cheapiest ones, they use a
Phthalocyanine dye that has less tolerance for voltage variations; and might be less likly to work in all drives.

Gold-green - Cyanine dye is more forgiving of disk write and disk read variations, and has a rated life span of 10 years.

Silver-blue - uses Azo dye and is simular to the Blue-green disk but has a life span rated to over 100 years.

[DVNT1]

This may be one of the more reputable sites... http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq.html