Reliability of CD-RW Discs

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Posted by Cliff on Wednesday September 1, 1999 @03:48AM from the the-psersistence-of-data dept.

Fruck asks: "I've been using CD-RW discs to store my important data for the last year, with no problems. However, I fear that one day, somehow the data could be gone because of general wear and tear on the disk. I'm wondering if anyone else who uses CD-RW heavily has experienced any problems with data loss... " Interesting question. Wonder which one fares better: CD-Rs or CD-RWs?

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Re:CD-RW as a Read/write disk. by Fastolfe · 1999-09-07 21:54 · Score: 2

Careful -- most CD-RW discs have a very finite (and frequently lower than you'd expect) number of writes that can be performed in a given area. If you're constantly re-arranging and saving data to your CD-RW's in this manner, it will wear it out rather quickly.

I'm afraid I don't have a number, but I remember something in the neighborhood of 1000 writes? Maybe somebody else can comment.
Re:CD-R k(un)reliability by Fastolfe · 1999-09-07 21:59 · Score: 2

Just out of curiosity, since the bulk of the disc itself just seems to be transparent plastic, is there a common method for re-surfacing the bottom of the disc? If a bunch of surface scratches don't actually damage the media, one should be able to "sand" and buff the bottom side of the disc and be able to read their data again, yes? Is there a published method or product for doing this?
Re:On CD-R reliability. by The+Mayor · 1999-09-03 01:09 · Score: 2

Whoah. Really? I've got quite a few CD-Rs that are about 4 years old, and none have failed. I'd assume some sort of Gaussian distribution of failures. Are your temperatures given in Fahrenheit or Celcius?

Don't know if anyone has any evidence to support this, but I've heard that the ones that appear gold on the bottom layer are supposed to last longer. The ones that are dark blue are supposed to be the next most durable, and the silver ones are supposed to be the least durable. Of course, this could easily be a marketing ploy.

A friend that has a pretty extensive collection of Grateful Dead shows (400+ shows straight from the boards, most with 2 discs) swears by the Maxell ones with the gold bottoms. Since I buy by the 100, and the price difference per disk is about 65 cents, I follow his advice.

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--Be human.
Re:CD-R vs. CD-RW by dirty · 1999-09-01 21:29 · Score: 2

Liebert: n. A large commercial air conditioner used in a lot of server rooms / computer labs. My high school had one for the computer lab. We kinda made it our pet. Yes we were dorks. It was just fun to see the "high humidity" light go on and hear liebert kick into action.

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-matt