CD Rom Disks Longevity

Brad

commercial CD ROMS are pressed as in they are a silver "foil" with lands and pits, which reflect or deflect the laser beam to make up the data on the disk, where as CD-R is reflective film which gets burned to make the non reflective parts so it has the same effect. CD-RW uses a phase changing alloy.

The lifespan of the CD-R media depends greatly on the type of dye that is used in the disk itself while older disk's have a lifespan of 10 years and newer ones 25-100. CD-RW has only a lifespan of 30 years I believe, mostly due to the fact that the phase changing alloy is not as reflective as the CD-R's so is more prone to read errors from scratched CD's and the phase changing alloy can become damaged.

pressed CD-ROMs I believe have a lifespan of 100 years a lot of it's lifespan has to do with the earths gravity.

The best advice I can give you is to use branded disk's specifically designed for data storage (all the major brands make them) preferably with extra protective coating's burn them at there rated speed, error check them and store them in a cool,dry place where they wont get damaged from over exposure to heat,sunlight,dampness or physical scratching, also do not use anything other than pens or label's that are specifically designed to stick to the media.

JD