CD-R and DVD-R "shelf life"

[Prague]

Rather than hijack a thread, I'll start one.

 

What has everyone heard about recording on these mediums "going bad" or whatever.

 

I have CD-R's from 1996. So far I have had no problems.

 

I'm on the side of belief that these media will easily last 50 years or more.

[John Sayers]

Living as I do in a sub-tropical climate I have to watch my CDs don't get a mould growth that screws them.

 

cheers

john

[Botch.]

I had posted a CNN article on this subject a year or so ago, I can't remember what I titled the thread... if I find it I'll post it.

[Anderton]

There are two schools of thought:

 

1. They'll last a real, real long time.

2. There are all kinds of secret problems that will reveal themselves over time, and we'll all be screwed.

 

Pick whichever one fits your world view, because we won't know for sure for several years...

 

When I back up to CD-R, I do it to CD-Rs made by two different companies, just in case.

[Michelle ggurl]

Well, here's another thought, regarding pressed, manufactured CDs:

 

I have some CDs that appear to have lost adhesion of what appears to be the reflective layer to what appears to be the playing surface plastic. Like, little bubbles have formed. I can't remember the ones off the top of my head, but at least two. When I play them, they have skips in them and I can only guess that these bubbles are the culprit because the surface is clean and I don't have this problem with my other CDs (so it's not the player). I don't consider myself particularly rough on my discs, either ...

 

I think these discs are older, but like I said, I don't recall which ones specifically this happened to. Anyone else ever see this?

[kylen]

Originally posted by John Sayers:

Living as I do in a sub-tropical climate I have to watch my CDs don't get a mould growth that screws them.

 

cheers

john

Plastic eating moulds you're saying? Yikes...I didn't think about that one but we do have that worry with vinyl - or is it old shellacs.

[theblue1]

Originally posted by Anderton:

There are two schools of thought:

 

1. They'll last a real, real long time.

2. There are all kinds of secret problems that will reveal themselves over time, and we'll all be screwed.

 

Pick whichever one fits your world view, because we won't know for sure for several years...

 

When I back up to CD-R, I do it to CD-Rs made by two different companies, just in case.

I thought I was the only one paranoid to do this!

 

 

I've been burning CD's since '96 or '97 [the early days are a black spot on my memory... getting the first SCSI burner rig up was a nightmare, thanks to Adaptec, Corel, and whoever owned my burner software before those bozos successively bought it. Adaptec specifically deserve a prime spot in Hades for their part. And Pioneer, the makers of the $600 drive, should be sitting right at their side. That burner probably delivered less than a 100 burns before it trundled over to The Other Side.]

 

But -- so far (touch wood) -- I haven't had any old disks that wouldn't read.

 

What I would be concerned about, particularly in humid climes, would be paper CD labels. Normally, we might think of them as extra protection for the protective coat and substrate beneath it -- but heaven only knows what happens to a paper label that's become damp, mildewed or moldy. As we all probably know, peeling a paper label off a CD is almost always fatal to the CD.

 

Hence, I never, ever use CD label appliques except for send-outs (hell, there not gonna listen, anyhow, who cares if it lasts 15 minutes... )

[Slowly]

I heard 50 years also for pressed, 10 years for burned. Kcbass

[Dak Lander]

Originally posted by Kcbass:

I heard 50 years also for pressed, 10 years for burned. Kcbass

So, what setting should the iron be for pressing? I'm sure that set the iron to the highest setting will burn the cds fine.

[AudioMaverick]

Well... I have to say that there have been negative issues with certain CDs. It mostly has been in the last 3 or so years. And, it has to do with cheap short-cut manufacturing processes by the "lesser" manufacturers. The issue lies mostly in using adhesive layers that react with the film layers. You will sometimes see cloudiness or bubbling (as GeekGurl has). When this occurs, the layers will peel off the top of the disc.

 

Because of these cheaper processes, some manufacturers will post in the fine print not to write on the disc with any marks or put paper labels on them. I bought some Ritek discs a few years ago with this statement. Amazingly, almost all of that 50 CD set of discs has failed. The audio ones began crackling in less than a year, regardless of being in the house or car. A 30-power microscope was able to show the cracking of the film with the data on it.

 

That being said... Back in 1995, I was tasked to set up a Toshiba single speed burner station ($12K). Of the discs I burned, I made a few personal discs of records I wanted to convert. The discs cost $20/each, then. They all are playable, today.

 

As the old saying goes... Make at least 2 copies. If you can, make a third in a different format.

[techristian]

I had a few in my car that now skip and play DIGITAL NOISE. They were only in the car for 1 summer, but were mostly stored in the glove box under the seat. How long would they keep in a cool dry place?? I don't know.

 

Dan

 

http://musicinit.com/pvideos.html

[KenElevenShadows]

If something is really important to you, make at least two copies and make a point of backing 'em up every few years or so.

 

BTW, I use Taiyo Yudens. They seem fine and were highly recommended to me by several people. I have no idea because none of 'em are 50 years old!!! I use RiData (I think they're called - I'm too lazy to get up to check right now ) for DVD-Rs.

[Michelle ggurl]

Audio Maverick:

 

So, does that just apply to discs we use to burn on, or do we have to worry about replicated (pressed) discs too? The problem I experienced was with pressed discs, major-label releases. Should I be concerned about where I take my materials to be pressed???

[RABid]

Back when CDRs were between $5 and $10 each I set up a program at work to scan boxes of old time sheets and store the information to CDR. I think a single speed burner had dropped to around $500 at that time. The concept was great and staff burned 3 copies of each CD. Two were kept in offices for use and one off site just in case the building burned down. Weve had several failures over the years and in one case, all three copies of a disk failed two years after burning it. These are disc that are stored in plastic cases and in file cabinets with normal office temperatures. And we always test every disc after burning to make sure it is not bad before storage. In those early years, just because the disc burning procedure finished without reporting any errors, it did not mean there were no errors.

 

Anyway, Craigs idea of using two different manufacturers for copies is a good idea. Last fall the price of DvDRs dropped enough that we now write to both CD and DvD. (That is why I posted a few questions here about the best format, DvD-R or DvD-R. I never trust a single backup. In my experience media I record does not hold up as well as pressed media, and I have used a number of different burners and media brands. But still, I back up all of my Acid libraries, Reason Refills, sample sets, and I even converted my 1000+ CD collection to 256 MP3s on two sets of CDRs to store off site. Just in case my place ever burns down or gets robbed. With the current price of media your biggest investment is really time.

 

Robert

[blackpig]

I read somewhere a good few years ago about an issue where the ink used to print on cds reacted with the substance of the disk itself - the metal part of the sandwich that carries the data. One of my disks, U2's The Joshua Tree, has what appears to be large holes in the metal bit. You can see right through it when you hold it up to the light. The disk, however, still plays perfectly. Perhaps we should all, just in case, back up our data on 78rpm. Elvis, Bo Diddley, Django etc. can't all have been wrong.