ARE YOUR IMAGES AT RISK ON CD?

[Brianbar]

Attached is article I thought may be of interest, from a new English magazine for me "Photography Monthly" (June 2004 issue)
I found this magazine to be one of the best I have read so far.

"ARE YOUR IMAGES AT RISK ON CD"
A recent report in Independent claims many recordable CDs (CD-R) discs have a lifespan of only two years, meaning that the photos stored on them may not last as long as previously thought.
Our advice is don't throw out your negatives and original digital photos until we have investigated further.

Brian
Winnipeg

[JoeTampa]

I've got content on CDs that is over 6 years old and still working fine.

What WILL kill your CDs quick is scratches.. So be careful with them when handling them. I'm not too worried about it.

You could, of course, periodically make a new CD from the old one as a precaution.

[2new]

Go to Google and enter "Cd Rot" You will find a ton of information. The problem is real. The rate a cd deteriorates seems to be influenced on the storage conditions, but over time all CDs eventually begin to break down.

Although as Joe Tampa notes scratches have caused me more problems then rot. Currently I store backups on my internal harddrive, an external harddrive, and CDs. When I get enough time I will burn copies for off site storage as well

Michael

[toddb]

I've got content on CDs that is over 6 years old and still working fine.

What WILL kill your CDs quick is scratches.. So be careful with them when handling them. I'm not too worried about it.

You could, of course, periodically make a new CD from the old one as a precaution.

I've also read that scratching the top is usually worse then the bottom because the dye layer is closer to the label side (more so on some media). I've got too many pictures to archive on cd, so I've moved to DVD. I've got one copy at home, one at work, and I have an external drive that usually off that I store all my pictures (one reason for quicker access). Yes, I'm paranoid!

[Harry Settle]

External hard drive storage is the best way to go, so far. Can't beat the price either. Some of my really important stuff that I have backed up to cd or dvd, I have vacuum packed and put away in cases, cool dark area etc. . .

However, I notice that the cd's my daughter burned all of her mp3's and other music onto, sit on the front seat of her car, rolling around in the heat and never fail. Go figure.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Despite the possibility of "Cd-rot" .. CD is still the best long term storage option we have.

I guess he trick is to get the correct barand? I burned my first CDs many many years ago on a state of the art SCSI 2X burner! It cxost $600.00 and the black CDs were about $4.00 or more!

Those disks are still working fine.

[Webster]

I just recently transferred all the data from all my Zip and Jaz disks to DVD. Much of the data originally came from floppies. Some from 8 inch floppies. Long before the photos I now have on DVD go bad, I'll have moved them to double sided DVD. The only photos I have on CDs are on PhotoCDs, and they should be good long after there are no longer any drives that can read them. But they'll be going onto DVD soon, too. I can make better use of the space on the shelves.

I'll worry about losing data from deteriorating media when there is no longer any incentive to move them to newer types of storage.

[BigMikey]

I keep my photos on DVDs, and copied to a second hard drive. If I have learned one thing over the years, all hard drives are subject to failure sooner or later, so DVD seems to be the best options It might be overkill, but I make duplicate copies of my photo DVDs every couple of weeks, just to be safe. My CDs dating back to my first CD burner, are all still readable and working fine.

[Motorsports Photo]

My only problem has been cheap CD pages. I lost a few cds when they had "goop" transferred to them. No problem since I had TWO back-up copies.

Now I also keep a copy on a USB hard drive.

-Pete