« Keeping them amused | Main | Warning: iTunes rots your taste buds »
January 25, 2006
The life expectancy of CD-R, Part II
In the last exciting episode, we linked to an expert who claimed the maximumm life of a CD-R disc was five years. Not so, say several Bleeding Edge readers whose discs seem perfectly stable after up to nine years. Our last commenter reported he's perfectly happy to accept Kodak's guarantee of 100 years. (Ironic, given that at the current rate of the company's deterioration, Kodak itself won't last that long.)
This publication on the life of burnable media from the US Council on Library and Information Resources and National Institute of Standards and Technology suggests that there's too little research to be entirely accurate. The most rigorous seems to point to about 30 years for good media, stored at optimal conditions - if stored at 25°C and 50% relative humidity. Unless yours are in a controlled-humidity cool room, you can probably expect less that that.
Out in the field - at least the particular field that Bleeding Edge patrols - reports vary from a matter of weeks, to nine years and counting.
Posted by cw at January 25, 2006 08:57 AM
Comments
would the brand of disc effect the lifespan
CW: Yes. I wouldn't recommend the cheap ones.
Posted by: Smith at January 25, 2006 11:04 AM
I have several discs from the 1996-1997 time frame, and they're still perfectly readable, despite being kept in decidedly un-optimal conditions. I don't buy the 5-year claim - there isn't even anecdotal evidence to support it.
Posted by: Colin J at January 25, 2006 02:43 PM
I agree that the brand of disc is important. I have discs burnt around 97 from a reliable brand that are still readable, there are others burnt around the same time that weren't even readable two weeks later (not surprisingly that brand no longer exists)
Posted by: David at January 25, 2006 11:20 PM