Shelf life of CDR

[Basie]

I have had a few CDR's going Flaky on Me. They are over four years old. Not abused and kept in CD jewel cases. Mostly file corruption but a couple of Linux Distros not booting that once had no problem. Using Memorex , TDK and Sony.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

...and Memorex are the first to go?

 

[DaveSimmons]

1 year to 100.

If there is something you care about, you should save to at least 2 copies.

For DVDs, TDK sells "armor plated" discs with a super scratch-resistant coating, and hopefully better quality control, but even then a manufacturing defect could still lead to surface rot in a year or two.

 

[3chordcharlie]

IIRC, the shelf life of a commercially pressed CD is supposed to be around 30 years, if stored properly.

I've had cd-r media that won't read after as little as a year and a half. Part of it depends how fast you burn them (less than max-speed usually gives better results, but media quality matters, too).

I'm not sure what the expected life is, but I tend to worry anytime I pull out a cd that's more than 2 years old.

 

[VirtualLarry]

My MCC CD-R media (Verbatim DataLife Plus, Yamaha 8X) reads just like the day it was burned, even 5-6 years later. My Ritek 6x cyanine, not so good, I can get good reads most of the time when slowing the reader down to 4X. CMC media? Well, good luck. Using CMC media for long-term data-storage is like playing the lottery. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.

 

[mshan]

I think it depends on burn quality, which depends on the combo of burner, blank, and speed chosen.

Go to http://www.cdfreaks.com and look around. Some very knowledgable CDR / DVDR burning enthusiasts there.

 

[jackschmittusa]

I recently discovered some Compusa brand cds that I burned a couple of years ago were cloudy between the layers and don't work anymore. I have others that are 7 or 8 years old and still work.