X-Message-Number: 5642
Subject: Why CD-R isn't an archival medium
Date: Sat, 20 Jan 1996 10:30:57 -0500
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <>

> From: "Leonard N. Zubkoff" <>
> Subject: Re: CD-R as storage
> 
> I'm curious why recordable CDs are not considered a reasonable storage medium
> for archiving data?  From what I've read about longevity, they are vastly
> superior to any form of digital tape.

That isn't saying much. Many forms of tape backup won't last more than
a few years.

CD-R is based on a fairly unstable chemical substrate. Let it get in
direct sunlight or look at it the wrong way and poof -- your data is
gone. Its fine for one offs, its lousy if your data MUST survive. No
one has done ten or thirty year longevity studies on it, either -- at
least not the only ones that would count, as in leaving around disks
under varying conditions for years.

Lastly, I am quite unsure as to whether or not you are going to find
an ISO-9660 CD Reader lying around in 100 or 300 years.

Perry


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