The Myth Of The 100-Year CD-Rom

Toshito writes "Are we putting too much faith in the ubiquitous "recordable CD", or CD-R? A lot of manufacturer claims 100 years of shelf life for a CD-R. But in real life, it can be much less. Expect failure after only 5 years... Personnaly I just discovered 6 audio cassettes with the voice of my late grandfather, talking about old times. These tapes are copies of reel to reel recorded in 1971, and they are still in excellent shape. I was thinking about digitizing everything, do a little noise reduction, and burning this on CD's, for my childrens and great grand-childrens enjoyment, but it seems that old analog tech from the '70 is more reliable than digital. The full story at Rense. Other links about the subject: Practical PC, Mscience, and an excellent reasearch by the Library of Congress (warning! PDF): Study of CD longevity, html version (google):Study html."

Comments

He already has analog copies, idiot

[rpresser]

duh ... the story said that he was listening to cassette tapes that were copies of the R2R tapes.

Re:MAM-A "gold" metallized layer is aluminum not g

[Beliskner]

i suspect M-O media will last longer

Here's a paper comparing DVD-RAM and M-O. Healthcare uses DVD-RAM and that lasts at least 30 years and is proven tech.