CDRs - about as good as those tapes on your commodore 64!

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/7751
from WinCustomize Forums

There is an article that is making its rounds on the net today from CDFreaks.com that has some discouraging news:

CDRs have a relatively short lifespan. It appears that within 2 years of their making, most CDRs become unreadable.

One has to wonder what that means for DVDs as people start putting their home videos onto DVD-R or DVD+Rs.

6,726 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Odd. Other than those coasters I had made while burning, I never had a cd go bad on me.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I heard a spokeswomen from the CDR industry claiming that many of the CD's that are failing are the cheaply made ones that use very poor laminating techniques. Also, many people are mishandling the good ones by bending them when removing them from the case, thus causing "Delamination" which will make them unreadable.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

So far, knock on wood, I've only had 2 start to rot on me. Both were burned in 1997.


I'm not so good about storing them when they've first been burned, but eventually they get filed away horizontally somewhere dark.

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
So does that mean I should take them off my dashboard? They're awfully hot up there, tho, I'd just rather leave 'em.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I love statistics. I guess if I used my ooold cdrs (and some are more than 5 years old) every single day, 2 years is a good estimate. I never had a problem with cdrs going bad because of aging. Bad burn (with errors) or bad handling was the only cause I produced coasters so far.

hmm, lets wait another two years and talk.

f
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Nowhere in the article does it say "most". The only quantities you can find in there is "some" and "a number of" and, besides, the part of the article that's not only reveals that these two year cases only appeared at the cheaper end of the market.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Doh, when I rewrite my comments, I should do it completely and not skip words...

is ~ are
only ~ online
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
hrm...the article may not mention "most" (I don't know I didn't read the article), but the news story on the front page or wincusto says "most" - "CDRs have a relatively short lifespan. It appears that within 2 years of their making, most CDRs become unreadable."
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Already had two crap out on me after a similar period of continuous use so I bought a 2.5" drive momobay with USB2 and Firewire. Quicker, more efficient and easier to use.

I think the article means when they are used frequently, I used mine in packet write mode as a spare storage drive for transferring data between systems.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
horai, Could you explain what is a 2.5" drive momobay?( I do know what a USB2 & Firewire is.) How does it differ from a CD-R & DVD burner? I'm still too new to computers so please forgive my ignorance on this subject. I just purchased a NEW CD-R CenDyne burner - RATS!!!!!
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
suggestion then-don't go leaving your CD-Rs arounds like normal CDs expecting them to be just fine. Even normal CDs go out if they aren't properly maintained.It's just CD'rs are'nt as durable,so you have to maintain those even stricter.