How long can CD-R.DVD-R discs be stored? Will there still be equipment to read disc information in a few years?

CD disc lifespan

Since the optical disc storage technology was successfully developed as a replacement for tape drives in the early 1970s, in just 20 years, CD and DVD standard discs have replaced Cassettes and videotapes became new carriers of music and movies. When optical disk storage technology entered commercial use in the 1980s, it repeatedly boasted of its advantages. Digital technology and long-lasting storage time became the reasons for the rapid popularity of optical disk storage technology. "In the memory of ordinary consumers, CDs and DVDs with optical disk media can be used as once-and-for-all collectibles. However, after more than 20 years of testing, once-and-for-all collections have become a reality," said Thomas Fryer.

When Japan held the Osaka International Exposition in 1970, two "time capsules" were buried in the corner of Osaka Castle Park, which contained more than 2,000 items collected at that time, not only plant seeds. and cloth materials, and even a Panasonic TV set and iron pot. He Jingchun of the Fermentation Research Institute, one of the leaders at that time, said in an interview: "Our 'time capsule' project is to see what changes have occurred in these items after being buried for 100 years. I may have passed away by the time the answer is revealed. But future generations will see what can be preserved." The organizers inspect the status of the buried objects every 10 years and put new items that appeared at that time into the "time capsule". In 1980, a music CD was put into it. Twenty years later, when the diggers took out the CD for inspection, they found that the CD was no longer working.

Foles, who was involved in the design of optical disk storage technology in the early 1970s, said in an interview not long ago: "When we originally designed the optical disk, we planned that it would have an ultimate lifespan of 150 years. Who would have thought that it would only last 150 years at present?" 30 years”. Thomas Fryer was not surprised by this. He explained: "My career in quality inspection has taught me that nothing can be permanent. The first music CD was already doomed when it came on the market in 1982. life span". CD records from the 1980s and DVD movies from the 1990s were regarded as long-term collections. They were put on the bookshelf side by side with paper books. They thought they could be kept at home as a lifelong collection. In fact, the problem that threatens the life of optical discs mainly comes from the polycarbonate resin covering the CD surface. "Nikkei Science" once used a cover article to remind the world of the shelf life issue in the era of optical disk storage. The article clearly pointed out that polycarbonate resin, which was thought to be corrosion-resistant, failed to live up to people's expectations, even though it could not be seen with the naked eye. changes, but small corrosion on its surface will cause the loss of data information.

The German annual magazine "New Music Ears" pointed the finger at record companies. In their view, record companies blindly pursued new storage media and used CD technology just to pursue the business brought by new technologies. Sensational without considering longevity issues. Augustine, an Australian CD collector, said pessimistically: "If in another 50 years, when the original tape storage data can no longer be used, and the CDs have expired, all the information stored in our world will inevitably be lost. Doom." If you think about it according to Augustine's thinking, a large number of domestic collections come from pirated CDs and DVDs, and the quality is definitely not as durable as the genuine ones. It is conceivable that we don't have to wait 50 years, and half of the data may be lost in 30 years. .

What is more dangerous than CD music and DVD movie collections is the optical disc backup industry that has become popular in recent years. Zhang Xunhui from the Chinese Academy of Sciences told reporters: "Electronic libraries are the most dangerous users of optical disc backup technology. Written media such as magazines and newspapers will also suffer because CD-Rs, which store data, are more susceptible to corrosion than CDs and DVDs." However, we got completely different data from CD-R disk manufacturers. Green CD-R disks can be stored for 50 years, gold disks can be stored for 100 years, and blue disks can also be stored for 70 years. A recent test by Dutch magazine Pc-Active seemed to prove that CD-R disc manufacturers were lying.

Pc-Active's testing spanned 2 years and tested 30 different brands of CD-R discs. The test results were shocking. Many CD-R discs became unreadable in less than 2 years. , at the end of the test article Pc-Active wrote: "It is generally believed that CD-R will be effective for at least 10 years, and some manufacturers even claim that it can last for a century. But the results of our test show that they are all exaggerating."

While collectors of CD music and DVD movies are complaining that their collections are running out, FlexPlay and Disney have gone against the grain and developed a one-time self-destructing DVD called EZ-D. This kind of DVD can only last for 48 hours after being opened and exposed to air. Disney plans to use this technology in the movie rental market, using chemical methods to achieve the encryption effect of the original DVD encoding program. But environmentalists reacted with outrage to the one-time self-destructing DVD, with Jonina Iron holding up a sign reading 'Shameless Disney, Stop Producing Commercial Waste' and saying: "Stupid businessmen are developing it again. If we buy a useless one-time product, aren’t the tens of billions of CDs and DVDs that will expire in the future not enough for the garbage bin to recycle?”

So, the maximum is 10 years, usually 3-5 years

No matter what disk, no matter how good the manufacturer’s promotion is, it’s all nonsense

10 years is the limit! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Of course, the storage method is also very important

If you want to save the disc for a long time:

1. Use a good recording disc, and the workmanship, dye, etc. must be guaranteed. .

2. The storage location must be dust-free, dark, and at a constant temperature.

With these two points, there is no problem in keeping your disk for more than 10 years.

Many people put the recording disks in their hands in small plastics. This is not good. After a period of time, they will become sticky and the protective layer will be peeled off.

It is recommended to use a large optical disc CD treasure, the kind that should be placed vertically, so that the life of the disc can be guaranteed.

The important reason why discs placed in optical disc bags are prone to breakage is that the disc is easily squeezed and deformed in the bag. Once deformed, it is easy to make sounds and become difficult to read.

If you are tight on money, the best way is to sort the engraved discs back into the 50P disc buckets. It is best to have ones below 25P, so that the discs are easy to find. Make a list of each bucket. LIST.

Don’t worry, the plates placed in the bucket will not be scratched as long as they are not moved frequently, because there is a protrusion on each plate, and this protrusion keeps the distance between each plate.

Don’t take the bucket with the disks around, because although there is a gap between each disk in the bucket, the distance is very small. If there is vibration, the connection between the disks will sound. This kind of joint will cause "pitting" phenomenon on the disk.

Well, as long as you save it properly and use a good disk, there is no problem in keeping your disk for more than 10 years.

The last point is the most important, the problem of disk and machine capacity. For example: My LG 16X has no problems with RIDATA and BENQ, and C2 has never been detected.

But a friend of mine used his SONY to engrave the same disk and the same batch, and the performance of BENQ was indeed not good. Difficulty in recognizing the offer occurs.

The same disk, such as the Woodpecker CMC, will always show large C2 on my LG 16X no matter how fast I burn it. The C2 can reach several thousand. The carved disk can be read on other machines. It is quite difficult, and cannot be completely COPY, and there are a lot of bad sectors. But the LG 48X used by this CMC woodpecker from a friend had very few C2s carved on it, only 1 or 2 places.

So the compatibility between the disc and the machine should be paid attention to. Relatively speaking, the CDRs of RITEK, RIDATA, and BENQ have very good compatibility characteristics. The engraved disk reads quite smoothly.