A warning about using CD and DVD for backups

  • Thread starter Thread starter vestast
  • Start date Start date
Guys, I've been backing stuff up to CD-R for the last 12 years; blank CD-Rs were $30 each and the $4000 burner we had was only 1x and took 90minutes no matter HOW little data you put on it.

Those CDs are still just fine. Got one booted right now and it works just fine.

Nothing lasts forever. Black-and-white photos are only good for 60-100years and color photos start going after 25 (that's why I'm in the process of scanning them all to disk to put on multiple CD-Rs.) I'd much rather back up my CD-Rs every 5 or 10 years than risk storing hard drives or the original photos. And you can bet we'll be using something quite different in another 20 years anyway.

Dont panic.
 
Hey I'm not panicking. But we're talking about disks from longer than 12 yrs ago.


From the linked article:

He went through his collection and found that 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the discs, most of which were produced in the 1980s, were to some extent rotten.
Click to expand...
 
I've had problems with 4 year old CD-ROMs not playing in my drives at all. I looked at them under light and don't see any pinpoints or anything like that. I also have a pack of supposed high quality disks just sitting around. They used to work great when I was burning them with my 2 year old drive CD-R drive. After that drive failed and I got a new one, after burning some data on them those disks, they wouldn't read. I have lot of CD-ROMs which I've been backing up to DVD-R. DVD's are different from CD's. DVD's have the reflective dye layer sandwhitched between two plastic layers, so they are well protected. CD's have the layer at the top, so they are not protected at all.
 
I've had similar experiences. I got my first (external SCSI) CD burner 4 years ago this month and I don't think any of the CDs have survived. Now I use external hard drives...and reportedly they are toast after a few years of inactivity. There's no bullet-proof backup! Good thing I've still got my 8-track. [important note: that's a J-O-A-K, son.]
 
lpdeluxe said:
Now I use external hard drives...and reportedly they are toast after a few years of inactivity.
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How can a hard drive go bad after some time of inactivity?
Do you have any link to proove that statement?
I still have some very old floppies that are usable just fine.
 
brzilian said:
Anybody out there still using their Bernoulli, Syquest or Jaz drives?
Click to expand...

muskgrave, full of shame, raises his hand...
 
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