Quote:
Originally Posted by s3ntient
CDRs have been shown to not last very long. Manufacturers used to claim 100 years longevity, now that claim is down to 10 years, and I have CDs that I burned 6 or 7 years ago that are now unreadable. That's a far cry from permanent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R#Expected_lifespan |
I don't want to start a flame war, or be seen to be criticising what s3ntient said, and I'll be the first to admit that I should have qualified what I said about CD longevity. There's a plethora if information on-line about the topic (try googling for 'longevity CD'. All I can say is that I have some very old (if you can call about 15 years 'old') CDs which are still perfectly playable/readable. I try to stick to a couple of rules if I want a recording or data to last.
IMO the crucial factors are
1. The quality of the disc-
To quote my old granny 'you buy cheap and you pay dear'. For example, HHB pro quality discs are over £0.50 each here, but their claimed lifespan is 200 years. How exactly you would go about challenging this in199 years is not clear. If they didn't last more than 10 years then you'd have a good chance of redress. If the data matters, see if you can find out something about who produced the disc. Branded discs tend to be better (i.e. known manufacturer's brands not for instance supermarket badged, which can come from anywhere).
2. The burn speed-
The higher the speed at which you burn the disc the greater chance of data errors. Try to use software and a writer which can crank itself down to low write speeds. There are a few good apps for Windows and Linux about but I wouldn't know about Macs. As I understand it, if you keep the speed low, you maximise the chances of a good burn, hence if data errors are caused by disc deterioration over time the oversampling of the reader has a better chance of correcting them.
Anyway, I see I've written far more than I intended, Hope this helps.
Titus
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/images/smilies/eek.gif