Time to worry for your ebooks saved on CD-R

Colin Dunstan · 08-28-2003, 08:55 AM

cdfreaks.com has an interesting article (original from a Dutch magazine, translated from Dutch to English) that made me think about how save my data on CD-R was:

"The tests showed that a number of CD-Rs had become completely unreadable while others could only be read back partially. Data that was recorded 20 months ago had become unreadable. These included discs of well known and lesser known manufacturers.

It is presumed that CD-Rs are good for at least 10 years. Some manufacturers even claim that their CD-Rs will last up to a century. From our tests it's concluded however that there is a lot of junk on the market. We came across CD-Rs that should never have been released to the market. It's completely unacceptable that CD-Rs become unusable in less than two years."

"On the image below you can see the exact same CD-R. On the left you see the outcome of our tests done in 2001. On the right you see the same CD-R in 2003. The colours indicate the severeness of the errors in the following order; white, green, yellow and red whereas white indicates that the disc can be read well and red indicates that it cannot be read."

This is shocking, and makes me wonder how should I backup my data, ebooks and music collections.

RockerChick · 09-02-2003, 09:40 PM

Wow. SCARY!

*my books*
*my pictures*

EEK!

So what's a safe way to store stuff . . . ??!? Or are we just stuck copying them every year? Is there one brand better than another, do you think?

I've NEVER had a problem with an audio CD, and I've had many of mine for YEARS . . . =(

BasilC · 09-03-2003, 07:45 PM

I'm beginning to have problems with audio CDs that I bought in the late eighties. Corrosion stops them being properly reflective. There was a scare a few years back about the paper used in the booklets, and the ink. One tip that I follow scrupulously is never to use labels on CDs or use anything other than the water-based marker pens.

08-28-2003, 08:55 AM	#1
Colin Dunstan Is papyrophobic! Posts: 1,926 Karma: 1009999 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: USA Device: Dell Axim	Time to worry for your ebooks saved on CD-R cdfreaks.com has an interesting article (original from a Dutch magazine, translated from Dutch to English) that made me think about how save my data on CD-R was: "The tests showed that a number of CD-Rs had become completely unreadable while others could only be read back partially. Data that was recorded 20 months ago had become unreadable. These included discs of well known and lesser known manufacturers. It is presumed that CD-Rs are good for at least 10 years. Some manufacturers even claim that their CD-Rs will last up to a century. From our tests it's concluded however that there is a lot of junk on the market. We came across CD-Rs that should never have been released to the market. It's completely unacceptable that CD-Rs become unusable in less than two years." "On the image below you can see the exact same CD-R. On the left you see the outcome of our tests done in 2001. On the right you see the same CD-R in 2003. The colours indicate the severeness of the errors in the following order; white, green, yellow and red whereas white indicates that the disc can be read well and red indicates that it cannot be read." This is shocking, and makes me wonder how should I backup my data, ebooks and music collections. Attached Thumbnails

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09-02-2003, 09:40 PM	#2
RockerChick Enthusiast Posts: 40 Karma: 22 Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Virginia Device: NX70v	Wow. SCARY! my books my pictures EEK! So what's a safe way to store stuff . . . ??!? Or are we just stuck copying them every year? Is there one brand better than another, do you think? I've NEVER had a problem with an audio CD, and I've had many of mine for YEARS . . . =(

09-03-2003, 07:45 PM	#3
BasilC Zealot Posts: 129 Karma: 60 Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: London England Device: Palm Tungsten T3	I'm beginning to have problems with audio CDs that I bought in the late eighties. Corrosion stops them being properly reflective. There was a scare a few years back about the paper used in the booklets, and the ink. One tip that I follow scrupulously is never to use labels on CDs or use anything other than the water-based marker pens.