Digital pic question...

[280plus]

Someone recently told me that pictures saved on CD or floppy eventually degrade after a period of time. I thought info on a CD was forever. I DO know the newfangled printed types degrade. What's the story?

[Brian Williams]

Floppy life span is about 3 years....   and CD-r is maybe 10 and RW is more like 12, I recopy every 5 years.  Not sure about DVD R

[280plus]

Wow...Learn something new every day.

What about music?

[cfabe]

Factory produced CDs are made differently than CD-Rs. On a CD-R the metal film is exposed and vulnerable. They do have some more expensive CD-Rs out that claim longer life, but I don't know how well they work. I know some cheap ones I bought degraded in only a few years.

[bermbuster]

What about flash drives?  You know, those stick things.  Do they degrade?

[Sindawe]

I don't think flashdrives are suitable for long term storage.  My flashdrive will loose the data over time as the charge gradually dissipates, but then I don't use it for months at a time.  The best bet may be using a separate hard drive, then powering it down for storage.  My 1990 vintage '286 still boots to Windows 3.1 just fine on the occasion I have to fire it up.

[Harold Tuttle]

the word of the day is:
"Phthalocyanine dye"

http://www.mscience.com/longev.html
Measures of CD-R Longevity

Jerome L. Hartke, Media Sciences, Inc.

July 17, 2001

Contents of this Document
Introduction: Background of this study.
Objective: Outline of purpose and approach.
Degradation Modes: Longevity limitations.
Test Methods: Approach to destructive aging.
Test Results: Observed defects for parameters and errors.
End-of-Life Indicators: Measures of longevity.
Conclusions: Findings of this CD-R longevity study.


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