How long can be kept data on a CD-Rom media?

  • Thread starter Thread starter luminore
  • Start date Start date
L

luminore

How long can be kept data on a CD-Rom media, without loss/corruption of
data?
Is there a sense copy data on a hard drive, for more protection ?

Thanks
 
Data kept on a DVD/CD will last us all out, as long as the DVD/CD is not
Damaged.
Data kept on a Hard Drive is easily lost, that is why we are told many "Do a
Backup"

Regards

John
 
luminore said:
How long can be kept data on a CD-Rom media, without loss/corruption of
data?
Is there a sense copy data on a hard drive, for more protection ?

Thanks
Click to expand...

My experience with burnable CDs has been mixed -
I have had several failures or near failures (CDs that
could be read by one drive but not by another).
These days I use 2.5" disks in USB cases. They appear
to be far more reliable (and they have, of course,
far greater capacity).
 
In theory about 50 years. But there is a sense that it may be as little as 2 in practise.
 
Data kept on a DVD/CD will last us all out, as long as the DVD/CD is not
Damaged.
Click to expand...

And for just that reason, any CD / DVD you wish to "keep
forever" should be copied. I keep at LEAST 3 copies of each
data CD disk.


Tallahassee.
 
John said:
Data kept on a DVD/CD will last us all out, as long as the DVD/CD is not
Damaged.
Data kept on a Hard Drive is easily lost, that is why we are told many "Do
a Backup"

Regards

John
Click to expand...
===========

Well, I am talking about data on CDR, not on DVD. CDR is less protected it
seems.
And what is 2.5" disks in USB cases? Is this portable hard disks? It
extremelly expensive, cost same as standard hard drive. No sence buy
portable hard disk for pair of program I want backup.

Thanks.
 
luminore said:
How long can be kept data on a CD-Rom media, without loss/corruption of
data?
Click to expand...

I have ten-year-old CD-Rs which are still readable. One had a couple of
bad blocks, but 99.99% of the data that I've read off them in the last
couple of years seems to be fine.

Mark
 
luminore said:
How long can be kept data on a CD-Rom media, without loss/corruption
of data?
Is there a sense copy data on a hard drive, for more protection ?

Thanks
Click to expand...

It's a mixed bag and depends on a number of things.
There have been a number of reports from people who
have left CD-R's out in the sunlight (in their car) that
have "forgotten" what was on them within a day or
two (seems to depend on which dye is used). There
have also been some issues with people writing on
the top of the CD-R to label it and having problems
(I use sharpies and have not seen a problem, but
there have been others). Remember that with a
CD-R the data is on the TOP - just under the
lacquer layer so it is not very well protected there.
I have some CD-R's that I wrote 6 or 7 years ago
that still read fine. I have some others (TDK "DATA"
(cheap ones that were on sale) that after 2 years are
giving read errors and often fail to validate even when
written - I threw them away).

For really important data, consider writing it to
two DIFFERENT brands of media and checking it
every year or so to make sure you can still read it.
There are a number of utilities out there like DVDInfo Pro
(good, but not free) that allow you to read an entire
disk and report any errors (or troubled reads) it finds.

One thing I do when burning CDs or DVDs is to use
Nero with the verify option checked in the burn box.
It will write to the media then go back and re-read the
media to verify the data matches. One clue that you
have marginal media is if on the verify, you hear the
speed of the drive changing up and down as it has to
"twiddle" with it to read some areas. I find the the
Japanese Fuji CD-R's verify at full speed all the way
to the end while some of the cheap ones will start to
hunt at about 70% of the disk.

You might want to check through the archives for the
rec.photo.digital newsgroup -- this discussion goes around
on a regular basis since people are concerned their
archived pictures will still be readable 20 or more years
ago.

mikey
 
How long can be kept data on a CD-Rom media, without loss/corruption of
data?
Is there a sense copy data on a hard drive, for more protection ?

Thanks
Click to expand...

My experience forced me to change my re-burning frequency to annual,
for my archival (!) storage. I have encountered problems with various
brands of media some as early as only a year and a half. Specialist
recovery software had only partial success on retreival.
HTH
 
luminore said:
===========

Well, I am talking about data on CDR, not on DVD. CDR is less protected it
seems.
And what is 2.5" disks in USB cases? Is this portable hard disks? It
extremelly expensive, cost same as standard hard drive. No sence buy
portable hard disk for pair of program I want backup.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

What do you mean with "extremely expensive"? Where I live,
hard disks have become very cheap! Ask your computer
dealer.
 
Back
Top