[water]

Inserted into my computer a CD of jpegs from one of my trips to Mull.It was written in 2004 on a Phillips CD.Quite a number of files have been 'corrupted'.Tried another with PSD's of same and some of those also corrupted.This is my only form of back up so I guess I will have to buy an external drive.Luckily,most of my stuff is on slides as I have not been digital long and have not for the past 4 years been taking as many 'serious' photos as I once did.However,this is indeed a wake-up call.It really can happen to YOU!!!!

[AQ]

Out of interest how was this CD stored. In a rigid plastic case or a soft one ? Vertical or laying flat, exposed to light. etc. These are all things I have seen at some time saying that they can effect the life of a CD or DVD.

Just curious

[water]

Originally Posted by Anthraquinone

Out of interest how was this CD stored. In a rigid plastic case or a soft one ? Vertical or laying flat, exposed to light. etc. These are all things I have seen at some time saying that they can effect the life of a CD or DVD.

Just curious

Plastic case with sleeve,lying flat in a stacked holder out of direct light.

[orangepeel]

Try the disk in a few different drives. I can't read any DVDs I burn on the burner itself, CDs are fine, but they work peachy on a 5 year old pioneer slot dvd reader.

I've also got loads of other DVD drives - seriously, they seem to breed! - Most of them won't read any DVDs I burned.

CD's are supposed to have a lifespan of 10 years at best. However as that's generally a marketing statement, it's probably what you and I would call a "lie".

[Dabhand16]

I have raised this issue a couple of times. 'Home made' CD's and DVD's do have a shelf life that is less than manufactured ones due to the fundamental differences in the way they are created. Commercial discs are stamped, not burnt, and it is the layer that can deteriorate.

A video forum that I am a member of highlighted this problem some years ago, with discs becoming corrupted between our and eight years after creation. Storage conditions can have a bearing on the time taken for this to happen.

With a video, it is not so bad as long as the original files have been kept, so a new disc can be burnt. However, if they are not available, the advice was to periodically make anew disc, but if there has been any deterioration, the new copy will have these faults copied too, and they will accumulate with further copies.

So all media is susceptible to corruption. best bet is to spread the risk by using (say) discs and a back-up drive, and make any new copies of discs from the drive rather than the disc. Good labeling or destroying the oldest disc is a good idea.

[Bill too]

In my experience CD's are almost totally unreliable. I can create CDs that can be read on both of my computers but only some of which which can be read on the camera clubs lap top.
The minimum time that a CD can last is the time between writing it and verifying it.

[snap2photo]

Google isobuster. I've used this to recover data from coasters, sorry CDs.

[brian wright22]

Originally Posted by orangepeel

Try the disk in a few different drives. I can't read any DVDs I burn on the burner itself, CDs are fine, but they work peachy on a 5 year old pioneer slot dvd reader.

I've also got loads of other DVD drives - seriously, they seem to breed! - Most of them won't read any DVDs I burned.

CD's are supposed to have a lifespan of 10 years at best. However as that's generally a marketing statement, it's probably what you and I would call a "lie".

What software do you use to burn the DVD's ? I mostly use NERO but any will do they vary in as much as their complexity and editing gizmos.

Are you finalising them. If you leave them in the multi session recording then you may have trouble in universal readabilty.
Regards Brian

[orangepeel]

Originally Posted by brian wright22

What software do you use to burn the DVD's ?

Nero 7.

Originally Posted by brian wright22

Are you finalising them. If you leave them in the multi session recording then you may have trouble in universal readabilty.

I never do multisession. It's evil and as you say causes nothing but problems with other drives.

[fgates]

External hard drives can also become corrupt, and are expensive. We were told by one of our sysadmin that USB memory is quite reliable as backup media. It has a limited number of read-write cycles, but this should not be important if you just store backup files.

Fred