Losing data on cd's.

[ShinRa]

I have just burnt about 4-5 cd's that have video and image files on them (no not porn u perverts). Now I was just curious, I may never look at these cd's again, or I may years from now. My question is, if I just leave burnt cd's in my cd case, is there a chance data can be lost? Also, if not, how can you lose data on cd's?

 

[Hazar]

I don't think you can.

Unless the CD-R's you bought were junk. Then there might be a possibility of the burn marks fading away.

But I doubt it.

 

[oldagerocker]

No, CD-R's gradually lose quality over time, they degrade. Even when kept in sterile pristine conditions, i read about a scientific study that was done on all makes, cheap and expensive and they all decayed at a similar rate. it was a news post on ircspy ages ago.

 

[ShinRa]

how long before they decay?

 

[oldagerocker]

about 2 months, but taht decay isn't serious iirc, over 6 months and your be in trouble, if i were you, buy a seperate hardrive and a casing for it = external hdd and store everything on that.

 

[ShinRa]

Well that really sucks. I thought burnt cd's might last for years. Looks like it's either an external hd or I'll be making cd copies every half a year.

 

[ShinRa]

btw, anyone know any links where i can read up on burnt cd's life span?

 

[oldagerocker]

dont take my word for holy writ... i did read this article ages ago, and my memory might be alittle skewed. I cant find the article now because it literally as years ago and the site has changed. Il try and find it for you.

 

[ShinRa]

ur a good man

 

[lePobz]

99% of my CD's that I burned over 2 years ago still work fine.

 

[oldagerocker]

http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_quality.shtml

is one link i found, it wasn't the exactl one i was looking for but it's as good as any other i suppose. in this one they sped up the degradation process but it will help you.

 

[ShinRa]

"The idea is to speed-up the ageing process of a CD-R from about 25-50 years to only a few days"

So im assuming they can last 25-50 years?

 

[ShinRa]

Oh and if they do decay, why do pc game cd's last years and years? As well as playstation 1 game discs? Do they have something burnt cd's dont?

 

[bosox188]

There's no way they'll decay in 6 months. I have 2 year old CD-R's and they still work fine. What brand do you have? Memorex are good.

 

[Asus]

Burning CD's at a slower speed will help the integrity of the data. That's what I do when burning music or video CDs.
I generally don't care as much for my data CDs.

 

[ShinRa]

ive got staples the home/office store's own brand of cd-r's. they make cd-r's so it just says STAPLES on it.

 

[Hazar]

Burning CD's at a slower speed will help the integrity of the data. That's what I do when burning music CDs.

The burner makes less mistakes?

Or just burns the data in deeper?

 

[oldagerocker]

slow and steady wins the race
go go go 1x burning

 

[Asus]

Link for guinny
By the way, when I say slow I mean like 32x. Not 48 or 52x.
Burners are stable enough to handle up to 40x speeds with good burns. IMO

 

[ShinRa]

Yay. That link Asus gave me said with careful storage (my sexeh cd case) and careful handling (im such a girl when holding cd's) my burned cd's should last years to come.

 

[SidewinderX]

yeah, I have burned music cds that have last for 3 or 4 years, and that's been 3-4 years of playing, manhandling,. and lying around invarious cars w/o a jacket.

 

[bosox188]

My burner is a DVD+RW/CD-RW combo, the CD only burns at up to 16x. But it never makes errors. And for playback in cars' CD players, you should burn at 4x at the most, otherwise the car's player will skip a lot and have trouble reading it.