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Thread: Will the CD you Burn Today Still Work in 2008?

  1. #1
    RZ Chamber of Commerce Unassisted's Avatar
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    Will the CD you Burn Today Still Work in 2008?

    http://computerworld.com/printthis/2...107607,00.html

    JANUARY 10, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Although opinions vary on how to preserve data on digital storage media, such as optical CDs and DVDs, Kurt Gerecke, a physicist and storage expert at IBM Deutschland GmbH, takes this view: If you want to avoid having to burn new CDs every few years, use magnetic tapes to store all your pictures, videos and songs for a lifetime.

    "Unlike pressed original CDs, burned CDs have a relatively short life span of between two to five years, depending on the quality of the CD," Gerecke said in an interview this week. "There are a few things you can do to extend the life of a burned CD, like keeping the disc in a cool, dark space, but not a whole lot more."

    The problem is material degradation. Optical discs commonly used for burning, such as CD-R and CD-RW, have a recording surface consisting of a layer of dye that can be modified by heat to store data. The degradation process can result in the data "shifting" on the surface and thus becoming unreadable to the laser beam.

    "Many of the cheap burnable CDs available at discount stores have a life span of around two years," Gerecke said. "Some of the better-quality discs offer a longer life span, of a maximum of five years."

    Distinguishing high-quality burnable CDs from low-quality discs is difficult, he said, because few vendors use life span as a selling point.

    Hard-drive disks also have their limitations, according to Gerecke. The problem with hard drives, he said, is not so much the disk itself as it is the disk bearing, which has a positioning function similar to a ball bearing. "If the hard drive uses an inexpensive disk bearing, that bearing will wear out faster than a more expensive one," he said. His recommendation: a hard-drive disk with 7,200 revolutions per minute.

    To overcome the preservation limitations of burnable CDs, Gerecke suggests using magnetic tapes, which, he claims, can have a life span of 30 to 100 years, depending on their quality. "Even if magnetic tapes are also subject to degradation, they're still the superior storage media," he said.

    But he's quick to point out that no storage medium lasts forever and, consequently, consumers and business alike need to have a plan for migrating to new storage technologies.

    "Companies, in particular, need to be constantly looking at new storage technologies and have an archiving strategy that allows them to automatically migrate to new technologies," he said. "Otherwise, they're going to wind up in a dead end. And for those sitting on terabytes of crucial data, that could be a colossal problem."


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  3. #2
    The Lineups stink. KronoRed's Avatar
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    Re: Will the CD you Burn Today Still Work in 2008?

    I just reburn stuff every so often, media is cheaper and the old ones DO make good coasters
    Go Gators!

  4. #3
    Just The Big Picture macro's Avatar
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    Re: Will the CD you Burn Today Still Work in 2008?

    "Many of the cheap burnable CDs available at discount stores have a life span of around two years," Gerecke said. "Some of the better-quality discs offer a longer life span, of a maximum of five years."
    I disagree. I have lots of CDs I burned in 1999 and they still play just fine.

    Help stamp out, eliminate, and do away with redundancy.

  5. #4
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    Re: Will the CD you Burn Today Still Work in 2008?

    After this last Christmas I don't really have to worry about it, LOL, my sister and I both got MP3 players.
    Let's make some noise!

  6. #5
    Score Early, Score Often gonelong's Avatar
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    Re: Will the CD you Burn Today Still Work in 2008?

    Quote Originally Posted by Sean_CaseyRules
    After this last Christmas I don't really have to worry about it, LOL, my sister and I both got MP3 players.
    I don't think anybody is real worried about music. I can download, rip from CD, or back-up from my neighbor pretty much any song ever performed.

    OTOH, that picture I took at Christmas of '99 and haven't gotten around to printing yet might already be toast and isn't backed up anywhere. Could be a total loss.

    GL

    /hypothetical only - I have all my pitctures on my hard-drive as well as loaded to a server on the Internet as well as on CD at home and at work.

  7. #6
    The wino and I know bucksfan's Avatar
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    Re: Will the CD you Burn Today Still Work in 2008?

    Quote Originally Posted by macro
    I disagree. I have lots of CDs I burned in 1999 and they still play just fine.

    I have stuff burnt in I believe 97 that plays fine - it was 98 at the latest. I just accessed several files from a "backup CD" that was made several years ago, with no problem. So either I am a living breathing outlier in this world of data or that guy is at least exaggerating the problem. Not syaing there shouldn';t be reason for some level of concern as we can tend to think of CDs as ebing somewhat permanent, but I have lots of stuff that has outlived 2-5 years. Actually I cannot think of a single time I have tried to ge somethign off of a burnt disc and failed - but I don't have hundereds of examples - just maybe 10 plus some music.
    "I'm virtually free to do whatever I want, but I try to remember so is everybody else..." - Todd Snider

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    The wino and I know bucksfan's Avatar
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    Re: Will the CD you Burn Today Still Work in 2008?

    Quote Originally Posted by gonelong
    I don't think anybody is real worried about music. I can download, rip from CD, or back-up from my neighbor pretty much any song ever performed.

    OTOH, that picture I took at Christmas of '99 and haven't gotten around to printing yet might already be toast and isn't backed up anywhere. Could be a total loss.

    GL

    /hypothetical only - I have all my pitctures on my hard-drive as well as loaded to a server on the Internet as well as on CD at home and at work.

    Yeah, my pictures would be my primary concern. I do backups periodically, overlapping datesfrom rime to time, and keep them on both of my hard drives.
    "I'm virtually free to do whatever I want, but I try to remember so is everybody else..." - Todd Snider

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    Re: Will the CD you Burn Today Still Work in 2008?

    I think there could be problems but the timeframe this article puts on it is highly exaggerated IMO. I have plenty of older burned CD's that work just fine. That being said, I do back every CD up on my external hard drive and I have several DVD's worth of data discs.


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