Tech: CDR Degradation

Subject: RE: Tech: CDR Degradation
From: Arkie
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 06:56 PM

Before I retired one of my jobs was overseeing a rather large digitizing project and the reports of CD failures and personal experience in hard drive failures led to further research and the discovery of the Mitsui gold CD. It think it is now manufactured as MAM-A gold. At the time we were paying about 80 cents per CD and saved all the files on the gold CDs. These were marketed at archival CDs. Supposedly the gold did not deteriorate in the same way as more common dyes.   


MAM-A gold

Subject: RE: Tech: CDR Degradation
From: Gurney
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 06:14 PM

It also helps if you buy better CD-R blanks. The 'TDK' cheapo's I bought a lot of don't last very well.
We had a thread or two about 'good' ones. I seem to remember 'Verbatim' were good.

Any comments on the 'best' digital media? Since I started with computers about 1993, I've 'lost' three harddrives, two thumbdrives, and floppies and Zipdrives have become extinct. Windows has become so greedy that older HDs aren't big enough. Some modern computers won't take a slave HD.   And that is without the times I've had to format drives!
The LPs are in the same condition as they always were, though. Oh, and they used to recommend backup to VCR tape. Tape. Another crock.

Subject: RE: Tech: CDR Degradation
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 06:02 PM

Some previous threads discussing this (and commercial CD longevity) (numbers in parens are year of 1st post in the thread):

CDRs. How reliable (09)
CDRs for commercial recordings (04)
TECH: How long do CDRs last (02)
How Well Do CDs last? (01)

Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: CDR Degradation
From: treewind
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 04:08 PM

It's safer, but not foolproof, to save audio on CDs as .WAV files. You can't play them in a CD player, but you can read them on a computer and burn a fresh audio CD from them, and you can make a perfect copy on to a newer CD from time to time to keep the media fresh.

Anahata

Subject: RE: Tech: CDR Degradation
From: olddude
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 03:24 PM

especially those I keep in my car, they get exposed to hot and cold and light ... after about a year, even though I am careful not to scratch them ... they get whipped ... but it is my dumb fault for leaving them there, but when I take them out, I forget to bring them when I am driving and have nothing to listen to ... cause the radio ... ahhhhh NO

Subject: RE: Tech: CDR Degradation
From: Will Fly
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 03:21 PM

Yup - experienced this as well. The band I played in for many years made some CDs for sale around 10 years ago. I grabbed one recently and put it in the CD player - sounded just like an old 78 rpm record, full of scratches.

Subject: RE: Tech: CDR Degradation
From: Bernard
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 03:20 PM

The substrate is a dye, which the laser changes the colour of to create a 'CD'. Some degrade faster than others, but to slow the process down you need to keep them away from light.

We've had a number of threads on this issue...

Subject: RE: Tech: CDR Degradation
From: olddude
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 03:15 PM

Sadly yes me too, not so much with mp3 files but audio recordings yes I have also. It is like the silver degrades or something ...

Subject: Tech: CDR Degradation
From: Acorn4
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 01:53 PM

Remember all the spiel which came out when CD writing first started about how permanent they were and how people would be able to understand our civilsation in centuries to come, etc, etc?

I backed up some audio files onto CDR six years ago and last week listened to the files which have pops and clicks which were not on there when I recorded them. Luckily I still had the originals on HD but I shall in future be very wary of using this form of backup.

Anyone else come across this?