Carey Fisher - NCS wrote:

> Is there any authoritative source for these claims?  I looked
> at the links you provided and did some Googling on my own and
> mostly what I saw is "I think" and "I've read" type comments.
> Personal opinions but no scientific data.
> 
> I believe this subject (extraordinarily short lifetime of data
> stored on CDs and DVDs) falls into the
> category of Urban Myth.  And I'll believe so until I see
> some actual data or authority (e.g. CD Mfr, NIST, or
> peer reviewed publication) that says otherwise.
> 

I had some CDs I burned when I got my first [4x!] burner. Some work, 
some don't. That was about 6/7 years ago.

If you take into account the fact that many don't get stored properly, 
this greatly reduces their lifetime [of course]

I wouldn't say the lifetime is less than 10 years. Any important data 
should be on more than one copy / different medium anyway. A CD of 
RedHat Linux v5.4 isn't that valuable to me these days, neither is my 
copy of Windows 98SE :)

-- 
Martin K
http://wwia.org/sgroup/biofuel/
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