> On a related topic, my boss today got a MO (Magneto-Optical) drive, and > has set it up fine under Linux. The MO media (size of floppy, with
> A month ago we tried unsuccessfully to get data off a 4yr old CD-R, > leading to the search for something more stable. Yeah right. When CDs first hit the market they claimed that too, what do you think they'll claim for MO in ten years? When CD-R first hit the market they made reduced claims to CD, but still in the decades. A few years later, the first-generation dye of CD-Rs was proven rubbish. There were only ever rather few proven brands of CD-R on the market, Verbatim = Imation [1] were not one of them. Last week I tried t get top-quality CD-Rs - forget it. Verbatim/Imation is sold as top-of-the-line and with an expected 10-20% failure rate during/after burning. Have a look at the recording surface and you'll puke. When I asked whether they had something better they didn't know what to say. Bottom line: there isn't anyone in any shop who has any clue about longevity. All the good-quality CD-Rs have disappeared from the market, most notably Kodak. Of course, a cheap CD-burner makes things worse. The closer the tolerance, the better the longevity (think about it, things get worse over time). I know that a good Sony CRX185 burner only burns about 200 CDs (IIRC) before tolerances become bad enough to cause the first errors. These errors are of course corrected so won't show after burning. Now when it's a few years later, ... you get the point. Even proven technology gets you nowhere if manufacturing standards are rock-bottom, as currently is the case with CD-Rs. Manufacturing changes every few months at the latest, and with it any assurances there may have been. Back to the MO topic, Carl, what makes you think this is any better? Is the longevity of the technology *proven*? Have the manufacturers published the results of their longevity tests? Very few CD-R manufacturers did (Kodak, TDK[2] are online). Anyone can claim anything. Dump what the manufacturer is saying, you want independent test results, everything else just makes you feel good. If you want longevity, the only way I can realistically see is to use different technologies or at least different brands of media, and to copy to new media every few years. CDs score top and with some distance on the will-there-be-a-drive-in-5-years scale. Volker [1] Same thing. Look at the codes in the ATIP area. [2] 2 years ago a friend and I bought a few boxes of TDK. Most of them are discoloured (cloudy) on the recording surface now, including the ones which were in the 10-pack I opened only a few days ago. Good technology maybe, still doesn't do me any good. -- Volker Kuhlmann is possibly list0570 with the domain in header http://volker.dnsalias.net/ Please do not CC list postings to me.
