CD-R's lifetime not as long as you think

DamnedIfIknow and shimman used our news submit to tell us that an expert physicist Kurt Gerecke that works for IBM Deutschland has warned users not to use CD-R's for long term backups. His advice is that if you don't want to keep backing up the same discs every few years use magnetic tape backup instead. Kurt went on to say that unlike pressed CD's, burnt CD-R's lifetime is much shorter with lifetime ranging from just 2 to 5 years depending on the quality of the disc. Of course he recommended that to extend the discs life you should keep it in a cool dark place.

The reason CD-R's don't last as long according to Kurt is that the materials degrade much quicker on a CD-R. As the disc degrades over time the burnt pits in the organic dye can eventually migrate to the surface. Of this makes the disc impossible for the laser to read. He went on to say that some of the cheap discs have a life span of no more than 2 years where as the better quality ones can last as long 5 years maximum.

Distinguishing between discs with a long lifetime and one with a short lifespan is extremely difficult as manufacturers don't usually use life spans to sell their discs. Recommendations to get around CD-R lifetime limitations are to use magnetic tapes in his opinion. Even though magnetic tapes suffer degradation they will still outperform CD-R's for data lifetime reliability with a lifetime in the region of 30-100 years. He did point out that no storage media can last forever but that magnetic tapes are still the most reliable.

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

I dont know what discs he has been testing but i have some CD-Rs that still work and they are about 8 or 9 years old now and still on the go. Post your experience with your CD-R discs. 

Source: computerworld