Lifespan of CDRs

[Pio2001]

In http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic. ... 2318#42318, cfitz wrote :

Cyanine ... Projected lifetimes in a protected environment are 30 to 70 years.

Phthalocyanine ... Claimed lifetimes have ranged as high as 200 years.

AZO is unique to Mitsubishi Chemical/Verbatim. ...Super AZO is a variant ... Both are claimed to have lifetimes exceeding 100 years.

The above values, calculated according to accelerated aging tests (in advertisements), have nothing to do with reality.
We've tried to gather a bit of information from users in Afterdawn.com.
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/3247
Many CDRs seems to die after about 3 years, regardless of the brand or dye. However, it is very difficult to find dead Tayo Yuden. Only one unconfirmed report so far.

But I've found something interesting in my CDRs. The 25 dead CDRs (21+5) I've got are all silver, and my 4 Gold CDRs from the same time are still in perfect state.
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/28410

All dead CDRs have no visible scratch nor fingerprint and were all playable after being burned.

Experiences, anyone ?

[Matt]

I have yet to have any CD-R's die that were recorded on my old 1x yamaha scsi. Mostly green/cyanine dye. The only one's that have are scratched/broken in some form or fashion.

I usually keep my recorded CD's on a spindle or in one of those $10-$20 CD cases you can get from target. (Also kept out of direct sunlight as recommended by manufacturer )

[cfitz]

It is difficult to know how long discs will last in the "real world" when everyone's real world is different. Some people take better care of their discs than others. In addition, anecdotal reports of actual lifetimes are, of course, anecdotal. Thus, they may or may not be useful, depending on the source and the circumstances, and don't by themselves tell a definitive story. Of course, as you state the accelerated aging tests do have to be taken with a grain of salt as well.

Unfortunately anecdotal reports and accelerated aging tests are the best we have. And since most people can't conduct their own accelerated aging tests (at least not with great scientific rigor), probably the best we can do is add our reports to the pool of anecdotal evidence, and maybe if it becomes large enough some useful trends may be discernable.

So, on those lines, here is my minor contribution. The oldest disc I have is a three-year old Imation branded Ritek. It is still in fine shape, with C1 max = 14, average = 1.2, and no C2 errors. I wish I had more data to share, but until I got my digital camera I didn't make long-term backups, and tended to throw away older backups as the data on them became irrelevant.

cfitz

[Darth]

hi there.

I have some pieces of non-gold Kodaks that still work great. Those were written in the 2nd half of 2000.

A sample burned in Sep2000.



cd doctor doesn't work here, so very sad

[Pio2001]

Thank you for your inputs, but they don't tell much.

The lifespan of CDRs is likely to vary according to the storage conditions. Ambient light (dark room, average room, sunny room), and highest temperature in the year probably play an important role (for me, some sun light can come in, but never reaches the CD cases, and the temp is 24-28 °C for 2.5 monthes in a year).
The burning quality must also be very important, since people burning bad CDRs (no name CMC, for example) sometimes see them decaying within weeks, and this depends on the burner-media-speed combination.

That's why in order to compare silver and gold (or other factors, like the burning speed), it is necessary to get CDRs burned on the same burner, at the same speed, at the same time, and stored together.
I have the luck to have got silver and gold CDRs from the same manufacturer, with probably the same dye (at least it looks the same, if the metal color is not taken into acount).

[Darth]

i forgot to mention, i do have some gold kodaks as well.

8x Gold Ultima with golden top and golden bottom
8x Ultima with silver top and green bottom (doesn't say silver anywhere on package/disc)

Both area manufactured jun99 and burned sometiime in 2nd half of 2000. All are stored the same way. Burned at 8x, same burner. Working fine today.

Sorry to say this, you probably bought some subpar media.

[Action Jackson]

I've still got some Maxell, Kodak and HP media from 1998 that's still good.

And yes I take very good care of my media.

[UALOneKPlus]

I have no dead CD-R's, regardless of media type, after they burned okay initially.

I've had plenty of dead CD-RW's.