Check out the National Institute of Technology and Standards (NIST) web site concerning their digital data preservation program:
http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/preservation/ and download the PDFs for "The Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs" (50 pages long!) and "Stability Study of Optical Discs" (8 pages). These two articles will explain, in great gory detail, how CDs and DVDs are constructed, provide recommendations on how to store CDs and DVDs to prolong their useful lifetimes and provide results from testing discs under harsh environmental conditions. They do not address how to retrieve the useful data after 10 years have passed and the data format is now unreadable by current software. In order to do that you will either need to keep a computer around that can run the old software, or convert the data every few years to a newer format. I would also recommend making multiple copies of important electonic data and stashing them in different places, and not just leaving one copy at home and one at work. I'd send at least one other copy to a trusted relative in another part of the country, in case of a natural disaster. Diana * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Diana R. Tomchick Assistant Professor University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Department of Biochemistry 5323 Harry Hines Blvd. Tel: +1 214 648 9760 Y4.330a Fax: +1 214 648 8954 Dallas, TX 75235-9038, U.S.A. Email: [email protected] On Tue, 13 Sep 2005, Butch Fralia wrote: > Keith Heuss ran some interesting test on CD's and found the gold ones were > far superior to those with Silver backing. I'll let him supply the details. > Kodak and HP CD's tested the best but gold CD's are really getting hard to > find in computer stores, at least here in North Texas, without special > ordering. > > I would suspect the same rules would apply for DVD's as well though they > weren't available at the time Keith ran his tests. The greatest advantage > to DVD's is the amount of data one will hold versus a CD. > > I have a suspicion that some of the file data formats will change as some > programs become obsolete. I have old files that I can't retrieve the data > from because the programs are no longer available. > > Butch > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On > Behalf Of [email protected] > Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 4:28 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: CaveTex: OFF TOPIC: cd storage and lifespan > > > I know that this is off-topic, but I seem to remember a while back that > someone(s) had been posting their planned experiment to see just how > "permanent" cd-r's were with data backup. > > I ask this because I see on the back page of the latest Light Impressions > catalog that there is a cd they are peddling which claims to be "the 300 > Year Disc." Other claims are that it is the "best CD on the market," that > its "patented dye makes stored data easier to read," and that "24k gold > stops CD rot." > > Knowing the combined knowledge of the caving community is pretty > impressive, does anyone out there have any input on this? I know that with > my digital images, the only option I really have for storage is on either > CD-R's or DVD's. Which is better, and is this "300 Year Disc" all it claims > to be. > > Of course, if it only lasts 250 years, who do I go to complain to? > > Vauter > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.23/99 - Release Date: 9/12/2005 > To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to mailto:[email protected] with the following message--unsubscribe cavetex. For help and information go to www.cavetex.net. List administrator: mailto:[email protected]
