Lifetime of home-burned CD-Rs...

...is what, roughly? Someone told me that there was appreciable deterioration after only one year. I found this hard to believe, and a quick search on Google produced a paper, stating Kodak's belief that a CD-R is good for 100 years. Any other thoughts?

 

I have CD-Rs (data discs, not audio ones) which are still perfect after 3-4 years. OTOH I've had CD-Rs that have become unreadable after only a few days

This article from the Luminous Landsacpe site about archiving digital photographs has some more information.

Michael.

 

I use tdk metallic discs which are the best sounding ive heard. They claim these are data safe for 100 years.

 

The jury is still out on this subject IMHO. All we really have to go on is the accelerated ageing tests done by the manufacturers which I believe are done in an ideal envirionment, so there's no comparison to how they are treated in "normal use". We really won't know until it starts happening en masse.

The best advice I can give for the longevity of CD-R's is to keep them out of direct sunlight and heat. A CD-R may well become unreadable if left near a window for a few days at the height of summer.

Having said that I have a number of CD-R's which are around 6-7 years old which are still perfectly readable.

HTH

 

There was an article about CD-R lifetime in the Independent the other day, referred to on the dpreview.com site:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0404/04042201cdrlifetime.asp

I didn't read the Indy article as it requires a subscription.

Michael.

 

I've discs which were burned 3-4 years ago which play fine, and some burned at the same time that are useless now. The only discs I've found that tend to last are those made by Taiyo Yuden in Japan or the Kodak discs (sadly no longer made). The TY factory made discs for Fuji, Phillips, Sony, HP, TDK but nearly all have switched to cheaper suppliers in Taiwan. You can get the TY's £25 for 100 spindle at www.blankdiscshop.co.uk. I've burned hundreds of these with no coasters yet.

 

In the latest issue of the Swiss consumer magazine "K-Tipp", an article says that, with badly-stored CD-Rs, significant data loss can start within 2 years. So, why do we bother? Should we be all running hard disc storage, or what?

 

The thing is, what defines "Badly Stored"? I know people who have extremely badly stored "real" CD's (i.e never put back in cases and strewn around the place) and that generally results in data loss (read skipping etc) whithin a matter of months, let alone years.

I would imagine that most people on this forum would take good care with their music and as such I really don't see much problem in the immediate future for them (or me)

 

Exposure to heat and light, rough handling, that sort of thing.

 

Well in that case a real CD would probably outlive a recorded CD but not for long

From what I can gather a lot of the problems with recorded CDs is due to breakdown of the reflective layer. This layer is very suseptable to light and heat - it needs to be else you wouldn't be able to record on it. You can erase a recorded CD simply by wafting a cigarette lighter underneath the label side. Similarly leaving recorded CD in direct sunlight will do the same job, albiet taking a fair bit longer.

If you treat your recorded CD's with the care that you would afford vinyl then theres no reason why they shouldn't last almost as long as real ones IMHO