Report: CD-Rs Are not Reliable

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IMO The key to keeping data safe is REDUNDANCY. Don't rely on any one technology or technique and assume your data is going to be there. DVD-R's and CD-R's are good for storage (especially the better quality discs), but if I REALLY want to keep a file safe I always store it on a drive in addition to burning it to media, and the drive I store to is regularly backed up. It doesn't mean the data is 100% safe but it's pretty darn close.
 
The only real way to safeguard data is to chisel it into stone, and only a fraction of that is going to survive. Everything printed on paper or stored in digital form is temporary.
 
I'm tempted to shout fir....! Never trusted CDs, DVDs or any other storage media for that matter, for longer than a few years. But then, that's how long data is usually important, until advent of digital photography, etc. So far, leapfrogging (buy a new one every few years) hard drives is medium of choice, with online backup of a few other things. But what about the family "photo album"?

Read an article a few years ago that said the most secure form of data storage was pigment based ink on archival quality paper - believed to last hundreds of years. You can print 2D array of data which can be easily read with inexpensive scanners. Downside is "areal density", a little low.
 
[citation][nom]Wayoffbase[/nom]The only real way to safeguard data is to chisel it into stone, and only a fraction of that is going to survive. Everything printed on paper or stored in digital form is temporary.[/citation]
Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind. . .
 
Anything is temporary, full stop.

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I'm not suprised to be honest. These days though, I'd archive a lot of things online. Or in a RAID1 configuration. Then, take the disks out and put them in storage seperately.
 
I have 5.25 inch floppies that still work and they are over 20 years old, supposedly they aren't supposed to last that long. I've also got 11 year old cd-r's that are still working great.
 
[citation][nom]Clintonio[/nom]Anything is temporary, full stop. ---I'm not suprised to be honest. These days though, I'd archive a lot of things online. Or in a RAID1 configuration. Then, take the disks out and put them in storage seperately.[/citation]

RAID 1 is not a backup solution.
 
[citation][nom]maigo[/nom]I've never had high hopes about digital media lifespans. I vote stone tablets or stainless steel punchcards[/citation]
was it the mormons or the scientoligists that had their magic spells etched on titanium plates? I always get those two mixed up.
 
Many (almost all) of my 1995 CD ROM disks are unreadable.
Fewer DVD's than CDROM's have flaws.
I also seem to notice that some DVD's are hard to not readable on my laptop, while they are readable on my desktop.
I don't know why.

Also, I had many files backed up on an external HD, but it fell off a chair, and the axis broke. At that time it would have been restored for $700, but I decided that the data on it was not worth $700; so I just spend a couple of months looking for online versions of the original software and files I had back then.

So far SSD's are said to last longest, but I need to see about that first! So far one of my USB flash memory sticks (with USB1 interface) seem to last at least 3 years without failing, but haven't been tested thoroughly yet.
 
The internet and TPB is a good source for backups!
Loads of guys willing to host your original program for a couple of months to years, without server costs!
 
Old news to me, I've witnessed CD/DVD burned discs degradation first hand, and in the area where you don't expect the kind of degradation in display.
 
[citation][nom]ProDigit80[/nom]The internet and TPB is a good source for backups!Loads of guys willing to host your original program for a couple of months to years, without server costs![/citation]
Bad idea. Assuming it's not encrypted.

Anyways, more people should check out GmailFS:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GmailFS
 
I've never had a DVD or CD magically go bad until I built my new computer with Vista installed. Don't know if it's my burner or Vista, but a lot of times when I burn a DVD, I'll get redundancy errors when I try to copy or access files from it on another computer installed with XP. But it worked fine in Vista. So everytime I burn a disc on my computer, I have to copy its contents to the HD of another computer to make sure it burned right with no errors.
 
I remembered back when CD-R drives were just beginning to become available, CD-R disc manufacturer were advertising them to last more than 100 years. I still have a box of TDK blanks that is advertised to last 70 years, it's printed on the package.
 
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