Immage storage on CD-Roms

[retinaman]

I am new to the Forum but not new to photography. When I walked past my favorite Photo Shop just yesterday, I noticed a new "WARNING" poster in the window. It's regarding the storage of immages on CD-ROM. Ist it true that they will self destruct or loose the immages after 5years? If so, would you be safe to "make a copy" the ones you want to keep every 4 years in order to preserve what you have?

I have some which now approach 4 years and I am concerned. Where can one read up on this subject? Are the more expensive CD's better then the "cheapies"

[Rhys]

I am new to the Forum but not new to photography. When I walked past my favorite Photo Shop just yesterday, I noticed a new "WARNING" poster in the window. It's regarding the storage of immages on CD-ROM. Ist it true that they will self destruct or loose the immages after 5years? If so, would you be safe to "make a copy" the ones you want to keep every 4 years in order to preserve what you have?

I have some which now approach 4 years and I am concerned. Where can one read up on this subject? Are the more expensive CD's better then the "cheapies"

Don't worry so. CDs are history anyway. DVDs are the in thing now. You can put 7 CDs worth of images on a single DVD. CDs, improperly stored, are prone to oxidisation and damage becaause the image is recorded on their surface. DVDs are much better because the image is recorded on the mid-layer, sandwiched between two clear plastic plates. There's no way the image can degrade on a DVD.

To all intents and purposes, CDs do have a finite life. I'd say don't worry though before about 7 years. By all means copy now if it makes you feel happier. That shop was employing the same stupid scare tactics that all these companies did about the alleged millennium bug.

[retinaman]

thanks for the reply, of course they (Photoshops) want to sell you prints from your digitals but you yourself say that the CD has a limited life so there is some truth in the scare tactics used. But you are right, now ione has to buy a decent DVD burner/recorder. I hhave tons of 8mm videos (plus even more VHS tapes) that need to be dealt with.

[Rhys]

If you can code your VHS/8 mm videos as Mpeg4 then you'll get much more onto a single DVD. Personally, I think DVDs are an excellent way of storing photos and films. I can't wait for the silicon blue DVD replacement to become widespread.

[haikai]

I have some which now approach 4 years and I am concerned. Where can one read up on this subject? Are the more expensive CD's better then the "cheapies"

i've probably burned thousands (literally) of cds over the years and i have had some stop working on me. depending on the quality of the disc you buy, the quality of your burner, and how you store your discs, your mileage will vary, but some of my dead discs are less than 4 years old. you definitely should consider making a back up of your older discs or at the least put a few in your cd-rom and see if you can still read some of them.

i agree that burning to dvd is a better solution these days. the price difference is almost negligeable compared to cd considering the obvious benefits.

as for whether or not the quality of the disc really matters, i lean toward yes, it does. i have no real statistics on this, but, just from my experience, i tend to have more trouble with cheaper discs (although this seems less of a problem with dvds for me). cheaper discs seem to have their surfaces flake off rather easily. if you have a few old cds you don't need anymore try to scratch off the label side (not the underside that gets burned). you should definitely be able to notice that some brands are more difficult to remove than others :p

hai

[jaykinghorn]

The bigger question about archiving images is whether or not there will be software around that can read your files. If you are saving images as Tiffs or JPEGs, you'll be just fine. Steer clear of any odd (particularly proprietary-odd file formats).

A great resource on the archive life of CD's and DVD's is www.mscience.com. Jerry Hartke, the owner of media science has assembled a thorough collection of FAQ's on CD and DVD storage. (media science is an independent testing laboratory doing accellerated testing on optical media.)

He contributed the following guidelines for an article I wrote on the subject of CD/DVD storage.
-store CD's away from direct sunlight in their jewel cases
- avoid paper sleeves for long term storage
- make sure you are using a high-quality CD or DVD writer. Many of the "read" problems that crop up several years later are actually "write" problems from the intitial burn.
-Avoid CD-RWs for long-term storage.

I would highly recommend a trip to his website.

Best regards.
Jay Kinghorn
RGB Imaging

[retinaman]

Thanks jaykinghorn, this is a v.good article worthwhle putting it into "your Favorites".
Merry Christmas and a excellent 2005