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CD-R burnout

As an old fart about ready for retirement, this little ditty appeared in the latest AARP magazine, dated March 2006:
"Popular CD-R and CD-RW discs used to "burn" digital photographs, videos, and songs for the long haul seem to have a crucial short-coming, says an IBM information storage expert: The discs, unlike pressed compact discs used for professionally produced music and video recordings, typically last only two to five years.

Physicist Kurt Gerecke says heat can degrade the recording surface of burned CD's, which makes the stored data "unreadable" by laser beams. His advice: Store photos and other keepsake data on magnetic tape, which can last 30 years. Or they can be archived on a computer hard drive with a high-quality disk bearing and a disk with 7,200 revolutions per minute"

What think you, Audiogonners', about this news?
sid42
lvk47
94 posts
 
some discs have a 2 yr life span and others a 10 yr. Most discs made in japan [ mitsui, ty] have 10 yr.
download cdr identifer and it will tell you where and by whom your disc was made. It will also tell you if its long/short term.
rcziech
47 posts
 
I have had a few cdr's that started to be noisy/static after a few years ---- maybe it was a bad batch of blank cdr's , but after this, i wouldn't trust that all cdr's will last long term ........

On anything i may want to listen to in future years, i do not get rid of the pressed originals .......
sid42 OP
302 posts
 
Your responses are all great. I personally have not had any problem with my discs; I just thought you guys might get a kick out of the drivel that seems to be floating around out there. As usual, time will tell. As for me, my hearing will probably go before the discs do!!!!!!!
Thanks to all of you.
Alan
ketchup
698 posts
 
The blank discs are not cheap, and most consumer stores do not carry them, but they can be found online and from several pro-audio supply houses.

Taiyo Yuden discs can be found in many stores. As long as the spindle says made in Japan you've found TYs.
mmrog
101 posts
 
Here's a link to a ComputerWorld article on the life span of recordable CDs. I don't think it's quite as bad as they say, but it sure isn't encouraging.

http://tinyurl.com/7zqez

As for a few of the problems metioned above. Keeping CDRs in cars is asking for trouble. The heat, and even the light, are definitely bad for them. If you do this, have a spare locked away in a cool, dark place.

And the noise/static mentioned on older CD-Rs could be due to any writing on the disc. Unless it was done with a water based marker, the ink can eat through the protective coating and cause that effect. There are now inexpensive "Sharpies" available at many office supply stores that are made for made for marking CDRs.

BTW, here's a somewhat geekier article from ComputerWorld on how to keep important data. It recommends an old format called "tape".

http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/1552
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