I burn music compilations on CDs all the time and have been doing so since 98 since I got my first burner. Since 98 I've always purchased the cheapest CDRs available since what I was doing was copying music onto them and not using them for backups anyway. One of the very first music CDs I burned back then can still be played today. However, I have had some CDs that were left in the car, like on the front seat that after getting some direct sunlight along with the high temperatures of a closed car during a summer afternoon do not play as well today, but I can still play most of the stuff on them. I'm sure that quality of the cheap CDR does play a role, but 2 years is definitely too short from my experience. I would thing that CDRs that were recorded and erased over a few times may have their life span shortened, but not write-once-read-many ones, unless of course, you abuse them, such a leaving them in the full blown summer sun heat in the car as mine =) -Mario -----Original Message----- From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Ken Pergola (sent by Nabble.com) Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 8:59 PM To: piclist@mit.edu Subject: [OT] Is your oldest CD-R still readable? How old is your oldest recorded CD-R disc? Is it still readable? I was amazed at the claims made in this article (see below) without any data to back up the claims: =========================================== Storage Expert Warns Of Short Life Span For Burned CDs IBM experts are urging consumers -- and companies -- to consider magnetic tape storage devices if they want to preserve their digital content long term. http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/242241/185491/5939/0/ Quotes below are taken from the article mentioned further into this post: "...burned CDs have a relatively short life span of between two to five years, depending on the quality of the CD..." "Many of the cheap burnable CDs available at discount stores have a life span of around two years..." "Some of the better-quality discs offer a longer life span, of a maximum of five years." =========================================== Obviously no one has a 20- or 30-year old CD-R yet...so there is a lot of speculation out there with regard to shelf-life. I can't believe, and have personally disproved through my own experience with CD-Rs, some of the claims made in that article. I really would like to have seen some data to back up those statements. The oldest CD-R that I own is a Kodak PhotoCD disc that was professionally produced in September of 1995. After over 10 years, it is still readable. According to the above article, it shouldn't be. I purchased my first CD burner in late 1997. I have numerous CD-Rs burned in 1998 that are still readable. I'd be interesting to hear if anyone out there has a CD-R older than 10 years and whether anyone has had any of their CD-Rs disc rendered unreadable under "normal" circumstances through the passage of time. I've also read claims (not in that story listed above) that virgin CD-Rs have a shelf-life, but I have virgin CD-Rs that are over 5 years old that can still be recorded to. A good read on the care and feeding of optical media is: Information Technology: Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs -A Guide for Librarians and Archivists NIST Special Publication 500-252 Fred R. Byers If interested, you should be able to find the PDF file with a search engine. Best regards, Ken Pergola P.S. My apologies if this post did not get sorted into the OT category. I don't see an OT option in Nabble so I added '[OT]' in hopes that it would not be posted to the [PIC] category. -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/-OT-Is-your-oldest-CD-R-still-readable--t907869.ht ml#a2354218 Sent from the MicroControllers - PIC forum at Nabble.com. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist