On Sun, 10 Nov 2002, Chandra Bajpai wrote:
> I'm not sure there is much you can do short of scanning them in. Of
> course CDR media is supposed to have a 20 year life span (vs. the Sony
> advertised/hyped 100 years)
Usually you are lucky to get 3-5 years out of CD-R media (in my experience
anyway), as manufacturers really seem to overestimate the time it takes
the organic dye compounds to break down. The other common problem is the
tarnishing of the aluminum layer, often due to a poor topside coating. Of
course, sharpie and other solvent based markers as well as some labels can
also damage the coating. Personally, after way too many problems with CD-R
media, I'm quite weary of using them for any sort of important/archival
use.
I recently came across some rather interesting bits of information on CD-R
media at:
http://www.mscience.com/
They also have a survey/test of 100s of discs up at:
http://www.mscience.com/survey.html
-Toth
Received on Sun Nov 10 2002 - 18:34:00 GMT