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Title: Do Burned CDs Have a Short Life Span?
Source:
WRH
URL Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/200 ... u=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-
Published: Jan 11, 2006
Author: John Blau, IDG News Service Tue Jan 10,
Post Date: 2006-01-11 20:21:22 by tom007
Keywords: Burned, Short, Span?
Views: 82
Comments: 23
Do Burned CDs Have a Short Life Span? John Blau, IDG News Service Tue Jan 10, 8:00 AM ET 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, has his own 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. ADVERTISEMENT "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 says. "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 says. "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 says, because few vendors use life span as a selling point. Similar Limitations Hard-drive disks also have their limitations, according to Gerecke. The problem with hard drives, he says, 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 says. His recommendation: a hard-drive disk with 7200 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 years to 100 years, depending on their quality. "Even if magnetic tapes are also subject to degradation, they're still the superior storage media," he says. But he's quick to point out that no storage medium lasts forever and, consequently, consumers and business alike need to have a migration plan 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 says. "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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#1. To: All, wbales, tommythemadartist, diana, robin, OKsubmariner, soda pop, indrid cold, (#0)
This was news to me, I thought others might be interested. Any comments? I have been planning on buying a fancy Pentium lll machine, mainly for the wife's scrapbooking, photos and CD burning 8mm videos.
"Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially-induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear." -- General Douglas MacArthur
Thanks Kurt, I had it backwards. Now where's my old backup tape?
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. I have a good friend who's an expert on this kind of stuff. I just e-mailed him the article. When I get a reply I'll post it. I'd like to read his opinion. I have no reason to doubt what the author says though.
I've got one I bought in 2001 I can let you have for $900. :)
"We have our own values; we build our own special, our JEWISH life - and we are proud, so very proud." - Meir Kahane
Ok, I've got it open, how can I tell the difference?
"We have our own values; we build our own special, our JEWISH life - and we are proud, so very proud." - Meir Kahane
I've got one I bought in 2001 I can let you have for $900. :) Maybe it is a P lV I am thinking of?
"Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially-induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear." -- General Douglas MacArthur
I figured you meant P4, it's amazing this old p3 machine I have still seems adequate. Most of the games nowadays recommend 1.8G proecessor or better, my P3 is like 700mhz.
"We have our own values; we build our own special, our JEWISH life - and we are proud, so very proud." - Meir Kahane
I don't know. Go the the manufactuer's web site and search for the model's spec??
"Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially-induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear." -- General Douglas MacArthur
That's it. I want to do videoediting and more sophisticated photo stuff, and evidently that's what I need. I'm going to include the Mad Artist here as hopefully he may shed some light on this.
"Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially-induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear." -- General Douglas MacArthur
If you're wanting to buy a new 'puter mostly for that type use I'd recommend an Apple.
"We have our own values; we build our own special, our JEWISH life - and we are proud, so very proud." - Meir Kahane
I have (several) burned CDs going back at least 5 years. At least 5 application CDs and 5-10 burned music CDs. They all work fine. Music CDs are scratched and skip on occasion, but play just as fine today as they did 5-6 years ago. They have been put through extreme heat and cold in my evil SUV. I have never heard of a lifespan for a burned CD but it wouldn't surprise me. Having said that above, I take much, much better care of my CDs today. I always though their life span was dependent upon how you cared for them. Scratches, exposing to direct sunlight in a hot car, and I have seen wallets that were left in a car melt and ruin a CD. What I do now is anytime I buy a CD is to instantly make a copy of it and wear that copy out. A lot cheaper to replace the copy. Also, newer computers have so much more storage space than we will ever need. It is common to see drives with 160+ Gigabytes of space. That is a lot of music. I have started copying music over to the hard-drive where I can in turn burn it to a CD. DVD's (I think) are bewteen 4-8 Gigabytes capacity. Say you have 30G for operating system and applications leaves a hefty 130G for as many as 32 DVDs. If you have your source DVD, a burned copy DVD and a backup saved on the hard-drive, I don't see much else one can do to ensure their data will be around for a while- and we are talking home use here. Yes, any one of those can fail, but the liklihood of all of them failing at the same time is almost slim to none.
Nice reply, thanks, know I appreaciated it.
"Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially-induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear." -- General Douglas MacArthur
I have a burned CD from 7 years ago. This is a dispatch from the department of Whatever...
"Many of the cheap burnable CDs available at discount stores have a life span of around two years," Gerecke says. "Some of the better-quality discs offer a longer life span, of a maximum of five years."
#2. To: tom007 (#0)
Kurt Gerecke, a physicist and storage expert at IBM Deutschland, has his own 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.
~James Madison
#3. To: tom007, all (#0)
#4. To: tom007 (#1)
Pentium lll
#5. To: tom007 (#0)
Hard-drive disks also have their limitations, according to Gerecke. The problem with hard drives, he says, 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 says. His recommendation: a hard-drive disk with 7200 revolutions per minute.
#6. To: Dakmar (#4)
Pentium lll
#7. To: tom007 (#6)
#8. To: Dakmar (#5)
k, I've got it open, how can I tell the difference?
#9. To: Dakmar, tommythemadartist (#7)
I figured you meant P4, it's
#10. To: tom007 (#9)
#11. To: tom007 (#0)
#12. To: scooter (#11)
#13. To: tom007 (#1)
 | What's that Mr. Nipples? You want me to ask the nice lady about her rack?. |
#14. To: tom007, wbales, tommythemadartist, diana, robin, OKsubmariner, soda pop, indrid cold (#1)
The major problem with using magnetic media instead of CDs/DVDs to back up data: You need a working mag tape unit to access it. Sure, mag tapes might last a lot longer than CDs (I'll take the author at his word there) but it will do no good to have a quality mag tape 30 years from now if you don't have a working mag tape drive that you can put it into. Mag tape drives, with all their moving parts, probably cannot be expected to last as long as a CD. 2-5 years is optimistic. Computer storage media has gone through lots of phases: Paper tape, card punch, mag tape, floppy disk, hard disk and now CDs and DVDs. Paper tape is probably very stable, but good luck finding a paper tape reader. It's probably best to use the current storage medium of the day, and xfer everything over to newer mediums as they become available. CD's might become obsolete as DVD format takes over, and something else will come along and kick DVD butt later on. Just don't let your storage medium become obsolete. If it's supercritical data, you could make 3 or more copies of each disk. Then when you recover data later on, degraded data on one disk can be cross checked with the other disks, and errors filtered out. Forget about the mag tape drive.
#15. To: tom007 (#1)
You can get a P4 by E-Machines for about $399 at Wal-Mart. Total piece of crap, but it sounds like it would do the job you want it to. Dell is a much better brand, and they have cut the bejeezus out of their prices recently.
I love children, but I can never finish a whole one.
#16. To: Neil McIver (#14)
Good to see ya back, Neil, where ya been? Tax court? Just kidding. They say that 99 percent of the data from the moon missions was never analyzed because the storage formats became outdated before people could get around to looking at it. And now both the tape readers and formats are obsolete, so it may never be worked on. When the Library of Congress wants to preserve audio "forever", they put it on shellac 78 records. That's progress, huh?
You need a working mag tape unit to access it. Sure, mag tapes might last a lot longer than CDs (I'll take the author at his word there) but it will do no good to have a quality mag tape 30 years from now if you don't have a working mag tape drive that you can put it into.
I love children, but I can never finish a whole one.
#17. To: Neil McIver (#14)
Excellent point! I can't even find my backup tape drive. It's probably best to use the current storage medium of the day, and xfer everything over to newer mediums as they become available. CD's might become obsolete as DVD format takes over, and something else will come along and kick DVD butt later on. Just don't let your storage medium become obsolete. Really good advice. It will require being somewhat organized. I'll try. ;)
but it will do no good to have a quality mag tape 30 years from now if you don't have a working mag tape drive that you can put it into. Mag tape drives, with all their moving parts, probably cannot be expected to last as long as a CD. 2-5 years is optimistic.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
~James Madison
#18. To: Indrid Cold (#16)
I've been to Ecuador, of course, but that probably doesn't count as far as not being here on the forum goes. I've been too quiet lately. I guess it's a phase thing with me. Can't quite keep up with ol' badeye.
Good to see ya back, Neil, where ya been? Tax court?
#19. To: robin (#17)
And then there's the hope that whatever computer operating system in use still makes software drivers for the old equipment, so even if the equipment still works fine.... Not really. Just get a box for the attic and put all your stuff in it and every few years break it out and upgrade the medium.
Really good advice. It will require being somewhat organized. I'll try. ;)
#20. To: Neil McIver (#19)
You're right, it's no big deal.
Just get a box for the attic and put all your stuff in it and every few years break it out and upgrade the medium.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
~James Madison
#21. To: robin, tom007, all (#20)
I have ancient burned cd's that work just fine... (circa 1998) I have computer generated printed photographs equally as old... lousy resolution, yeah, but still clear as long as they weren't displayed in a sunny room... I have tons 2 year old photos printed on high quality printers that you'd be hard pressed to distinguish from professional prints... (we'll see how long they last) I've saved all my stuff to external back up hard drives (that abruptly stopped without so much as a whimper to indicate their illness)... lost it all... I've saved to internal hard drives that became lost in space due to registry errors (or other nasty happenings) that forced a full restore... lost it all... I've saved to both hard drive AND external hard drive to ensure material's safety and had a trojan in the wild kill them both in one fell swoop... lost it all... the only salvation I've had in each of those instances has been the cd/dvd copies I made of the data... Moral of the story? USE CD'S and DVD's as well as hard drive storage... but make 2 copies (kept separately from each other) in case something weird happens to your stash. Print your most favorite photos... GIVE copies to other people... and relax already... Nothing in this world is permanent and you'll survive the loss of anything but your life...
Don't force feed me your views... talk to me so I can hear you...
#22. To: siagiah (#21)
Thanks for the info. and the right on outlook.
Nothing in this world is permanent and you'll survive the loss of anything but your life...
"Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially-induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear." -- General Douglas MacArthur
#23. To: robin (#17)
Don't you hate that??
It will require being somewhat organized. I'll try. ;)
"Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially-induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear." -- General Douglas MacArthur
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