Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: 280plus on January 31, 2006, 03:04:33 AM
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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?
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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
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Wow...Learn something new every day.
What about music?
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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.
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What about flash drives? You know, those stick things. Do they degrade?
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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.
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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.
http://store.mam-a-store.com/standard---archive-gold.html