Do burned CDs and DVDs have a shelf life?

This is a big topic, and a dramtaic concern for librarians, businesses, or anyone with lots of digital records, photo archives, etc. Most of the news is good. You can search Google with "CD Shelf Life" for lots of resources.
Here are the short answers: "Among the manufacturers that have done testing, there is consensus that, under recommended storage conditions, CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R discs should have a life expectancy of 100 to 200 years or more; CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM discs should have a life expectancy of 25 years or more. [Little information is available for CD-ROM and DVD-ROM discs (including audio and video), resulting in an increased level of uncertainty for their life expectancy. Expectations vary from 20 to 100 years for these discs.] Source: Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs: A Guide for Librarians and Archivists URL = http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec4.html .
Further info of interest is at: Understanding CD-R & CD-RW - Disc Longevity , URL = http://www.osta.org/technology/cdqa13.htm.
There are relevant ISO standards for lengevity of the media and the data stored on it:
ISO 18921:2002, Imaging materials ? Compact discs (CD-ROM) ? method for estimating the life expectancy based on the effects of temperature and relative humidity
ISO 18927:2002, Imaging materials ? Recordable compact disc systems ? method for estimating the life expectancy based on the effects of temperature and relative humidity
"For years now many media manufacturers have performed their own lifetime evaluations using these or a variety of other homegrown tests and mathematical modeling techniques. Historically, manufacturers have claimed life-spans ranging from 50 to 200 years for CD-R discs and 20 to 100 years for CD-RW. Be aware, however, that disc producers, manufacturing methods and materials change over time as do applications and cost imperatives. Consequently, those concerned with disc longevity should consult the appropriate international standards and their media manufacturer for more particular information.

"It is important to remember, however, that nothing lasts forever and that technologies inevitably change. Well-designed products, such as CD-R and CD-RW, allow for seamless transition to the next generation and ultimately, since they embody digital information, contents can be transferred to future storage systems as becomes necessary to preserve whatever has been stored on the discs."

First of all, hats off to Michael for at least using some type of back up method. So many people know that they should, and so few actually take the steps until it is too late. Many people learn the hard lesson of losing great photos, music, or very important job files before actually learning some method of backing up.

And also remember that backing up means having a COPY of the files. I've heard so many friends and acquaintances talk about burning their treasured data to disk before deleting it from their primary hard drive and calling it a "back up."

Now should we even bother with CDs and DVDs? I don't even find them to be that convenient.

I have read a few articles from reliable sources that have stated that CDRs and DVD-Rs do have a shelf life. That life has varied from as few as 5 to as many as 20 years. But my best advice is from experience, and the experiences with storing data on burned CDs has been less than pleasurable. Audio CDs especially have become corrupt rather quickly, especially if moved around alot.

With the price of an extra hard drive at as little as $99.99 for a terrabyte, why bother with manipulating 4 gig at a time in and out of a drawer. Even if you need portability, a flash drive is, in my experience, much easier to use and much more reliable. I think that the question of a shelf life for CD and DVD media is very quickly becoming a moot point.

dvds and cds are nothing more but one copy after another they are mass produced from just one copy and they seem to last in stores forever

The question ?How long do Burned CD-Rs and CD-RWs Last?? was asked a few years ago in the Cnet Community Newsletter on 1/27/06 and to the best of my knowledge, things have really not changed much since then. Barry W. had a great answer to this question at that time and I would be hard pressed to really add anything of any real value to it. However, in my personal experience over the years, I have seen just about every scenario from some burned CDs starting to fail due to oxidation or delimitation in only a few months to many still working great after 10 or more years. Storage may be a big issue because I noticed many of my burned music CDs that I left in my car, did not last very long at all. Actually the most common failure that I have run across is caused by human error. I can not tell you how many times I have had clients hand me backup disks to help recover their failed hard drive only to find them totally empty. They thought they were backing up and really had nothing. The other common error is not backing up the correct folders. Many people often overlook data such as Quicken or Quickbooks data that may be stored in folders outside of My Documents or even hidden folders that contain Address Books, Outlook or Outlook Express data. If the data is important to you, my best recommendation is to never rely on a single backup. Have multiple copies of the same data on different types of media. Maybe use different brands of blank CDs, have a backup on an external hard drive as well and maybe even use an online backup source such as Carbonite or Mozy. And last but not least, TEST your backup by trying to recover something off of it.

Dana
Wayland Computer

The answer can be found at this site:
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec4.html

As long as they are kept in good condition and you still have an opticaldrive that can read them they should have a life expectancy of 100 to 200 years or more. I am not so sure about the rewrite
DVDrw CDrw as they can be rewrote so will degrade a dit faster how ever these discs should still be stable enough to outlast the current CD or DVD technology these discs should have a life expectancy of 25 years

As long as they remain undamaged, CDs and DVDs, whether bought in a store or burned on your own PC or recorder, should last virtually forever. They aren't going to flake, cloud up or go unplayably brittle like old video tapes, which have a shelf life of only maybe fifteen years under normal conditions.

HOWEVER, you must treat them carefully if you want them to last forever. Be sure not to scratch the bottom surface or they might become unreadable (although such scratches can usually be removed). Strangely enough, it is actually more important to keep the label side protected from damage, because it's much softer. If it gets penetrated -- even the tiniest breach -- it lets air get into the actual recording media beneath the surface which will corrode the metallic material and render the data permanently unreadable.

Like a lot of things from cars to spouses, treat your CDs and DVDs with respect and care and they can last forever. Fail to do so and you risk losing them.

Yes CD's & DVD's have a definate life span over time, but at this point it is only a theory suggested by the mfg's since no CD has reached this life span. Unless your plans are to pass then down like photographs, which also detoriate, you will not outlive the CD's anyway. If you have concerns about your CD life span some mfg's make what they call a medical grade CD which has an extended life, again it changes according to the mfg. I might add that the price also goes up with with the medical grade CD's. I do think it wise to have more than one copy of anything that is critical.

Yes. Your friend is wright. Any CD or DVD contains self date of himself. Reason is that emulsion on CD/DVD isn't undead and, after some time, may contains error on it.
P.S. I'm sorry because by bad English

According to the motion picture industry there isn't an expected period when DVDs will no longer work or be readable. Currently the motion picture industry is working to transfer all of the old classic movies from the original reel to reel tape to the safer media of DVD. Some of the old movies have been lost or just sections of the movies are gone forever. A perfect example is the 1937 movie 'Lost Horizon'. When they got around to saving it there was over 25 minutes that was damaged beyond repair.

If the motion picture industry has faith in the DVD media so should we. You can be sure they have checked it out better than most of us can. You will find though that the Blue Ray media could dissappear in the not too distant future due to the fact they already have things recorded on DVDs and the Blue Ray technology is a lot more costly to produce.

With your CDs and DVDs, just keep them clean and free of scratches and they should last at least through your lifetime. Look at how well the LP Record has lasted. And remember that most land fills don't want anything plastic because it never breaks down.

A few years ago I bought two large boxes of blank CDs in jewel cases. I use mine over a period of time, but my son who was a student did not use his immediately. When he came to use them, they had gone what is best described as "mouldy".

"Pre-recorded CD/DVDs" are created from a master and pressed - much like the old records were. Thus they are mechanically created, and are robust and with a long life.

Those you write yourself use a laser to cause chemical changes in a very thin layer within the CD. Moisture, heat, cold - all of these can affect them. Dual layer DVDs actually have two lasers that write at different depths. Experience and what I have read tends to suggest that just as floppy disks written on one machine were never guaranteed to read on another, so there may well be more variation on dual layer DVDs lading to less interchangeability.

I doubt that the CD or DVD drive you use to read the CD/DVDs in a few years time will be the one you wrote them in. Even now, you may have troubles - my desktop will only handle 4x DL DVDs as I discovered to my cost when I found that I had bought 2.4x DL DVDs. I had always assumed (wrongly it turns out) that a 4x drive would handle 2.4x disks, but not the other way around.

This leads to my rule number 1 - do not use the latest and least interchangeable technology for long term use, so I personally would not use DL DVDs.

You can buy archive quality CDs - they are more expensive. At the very least, buy from one of the companies that has manufactured computer storage media for decades. They have a quality and reputation to uphold.

This is my rule number 2 - for anything that is precious, use archive or high quality media.

I have a mantra that I repeat to all my customers - "there are two sorts of people - those who have lost data, and those who will".

This leads to my rule number 3 - always have two copies. However, don't make these two copies on identical media from the same batch. Use different ones. For example, with digital photos, every few weeks that you have taken them, as well as storing them on your hard disk, write them out to a CD. Then when you have about 6 CDs, put them onto a DVD, so that you now have two copies on different media.

I believe that the actual active layer is quite close to the top surface, and that you should only use special marker pens because standard ones contain solvents that might interact and affect the layer.

This leads to rule number 4 - only use special marker pens designed for CD/DVD use.

Now to my next rule - rule number 5. Store them in a place with relatively low humidity and a stable, reasonable temperature. Most equipment designed to play CDs and DVDs is going to be indoors (low humidity) where the tempertaure is a reasonably constant 20-22 degrees C (68-72 degrees F). If my understanding is correct, CDs and DVDs are actually built up of layers. Some of these layers will have different thermal coefficients, so the more temperature changes they are exposed to, and the greater those temperature ranges, the more thermal stress they will be exposed to. In turn, this can put stresses on the microscopic chemical changes that form your data. Now the data has been designed to deal with errors e.g. with CRC checks, but not with significant errors within the same area i.e. it may be able to correct one bit error in a byte, but not two. Excessive heat is probably bad, as it is mostly the heat caused by a laser that is used to cause the chemical change.

Finally, there is a second part to storage - what you store them in. I store mine in proper CD sleeves or cases. When I used to store photographic negatives, the better quality storage was special acid free paper/plastics. Because CD/DVDs are a similar process, I spend a little more and get quality sleeves. Then I keep them in a dark cupboard. After all, they are heat sensitive, and there is always the chance of sunlight passing through something that concentrates it - this is how fires start accidentally.

So rule number 6 is to keep them in the dark and in proper quality storage.

I have now dealt with the media and its storage. However, you can take a few precautions before creating the media. Make sure that you can read a disk written in your CD/DVD writer in a number of other machines. Do NOT utilise the modes some tools provide to squeeze on a few tracks extra of data. Some of these are outside the standard and may not be supported properly in the future.

And here is one that might suprise you - do not record your data onto CD/DVD with high level music blaring out. The vibrations may adversely affect your writer. (There is a video of someone singing loudly into the front of a RAID array in a data centre, and you can see that it causes all sorts of data errors, which the RAID corrects, but at a perfromance cost. Your data is being written without any of these benefits of redundancy).

If you are really worried, then it is worth every few years getting out your data and copying it onto new media. For example, copying your important data that you wrote onto CDs 5-10 years ago would only take 20% of the number of DVDs and you would know that it is still good.

Remember my mantra - "there are two sorts of people - those who have lost data and those who will". You can never totally prevent data loss, but you can do a lot to reduce the chances. Look at it another way - if you had to take it to a data recovery specialist, it would cost you thousands of dollars/euros/pounds. Against this, paying a few pennies/cents more for quality media, taking the time to check it and store it properly is probably a worthwhile investment.

Most recorded discs will become unreadable ( according to accelerated againg tests ) after 15 to 30 years.This is because of oxidation caused by the earth's atmosphere.

The best solution for long term archival applications is to use archival grade gold recordable discs.They contain actual gold in the recording layer which resists the oxidation caused by the earth's atmosphere.The accelerated aging tests on these discs are much more promising.Gold CD-R's are estimated to last around 300 years,gold DVD+-R's are estimated to last around 100 years,and the recordable gold Blu-Ray discs are estimated to last a little bit more than 100 years.

The color of the top of the discs is irrelevant.There are discs with gold colored top labels (Ativa Brand is an example) that are not archival grade gold discs.The bottom,recording side is the important part.Examples of companies that have Archival Grade Gold recordable discs are MAM-A (Mitsui),Kodak,Delkin Devices (E-Film),Verbatim,and Quantegy.

Of course it is always a good idea to make two copies and to keep the two copies in two different places.These Archival Grade Gold discs out-last hard drives by far.

Dirty Little Secret #1:
The Shelf-life of a DVD-R/+R is ONLY 2 to 5 years.
They may last longer depending on quality and storage(don't buy those cheap 50 DVD's for $5.00 sales). Non-commercial DVD's are a chemical on a disk. The chemicals are heated by a laser and made to contain the info being copied to them. Over time this rearrangement of the chemicals will deteriorate. DVD movies, etc. are produced a completely different way and will last a whole lot longer. Buy top of the line DVD's, keep them away from heat and light, and otherwise protected and they should exceed the 2-5 year expectation. But there is NO guarantee. Remember digital info on a CD/DVD will keep working until corrupted, then will drop off the face of the earth.

As you can see from the postings so far, there is no single or correct answer except DO NOT TRUST ANY single backup. We have numbers here that range anywhere from a few months to over 200 years. So which are you going to believe? The variables are too numerous, so your best solution is to backup often, keep multiple copies on different forms of media.

Cd Dvd's Shelf Life untill now it is not determine just yet,
there is a study going now but it is going to take
about two years to find an (acceptable answer)
but for those who want's an answer today,
here is your answer. (Unofficial)
base on my own experience i had cd & dvd's that won't play
due to several factors.
1.type of dvd/cd (- or + )
2.quality of cd/dvd (memorex/sony e.t.c.)
3.Type of burner in your pc or laptop.
4.where do store your cd/dvd's (cold/hot/dust place)
5.do you take good care of your cd/dvd's? (no scratches)
6.type of burning software (Nero e.t.c.)
7.version of burning software.
8.type of o.s. in p.c. (Win 98/xp/vista)
9.Number of apps. running at time when burning cd/dvd.
10.burner speed when creating a cd/dvd.

All of this facts are consider user's errors
because most of the people DO NOT UPDATE software
or o.s. system, and some users force burning beyond
there system capacity.
as i stated before this facts are base on my own experience.

And also for those who believe that having an external
hard drive to store your files is safe? think again.
any storage device (usb stick/cd/dvd/external h.d. e.t.c.)
no matter which one, it could fail at anytime.
and your data will be lost unless if you are willing
to pay big bucks to retrieve it.

if you want a better understanding on this topic
I recommend to visit the following web site.
is loaded with lots of info.
http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/longevity.htm

1. understand how opticals are made:
There is the top printed surface and the bottom plastic coated surface. The laser pulses through the bottom surface
to the underside of the printed, metal coated, surface. Home-burned cd's aren't as strongly burned as retail software
ones. One reason cd's seem to go bad is simply because the cd drive laser gets weak from use; i.e. a retail cd may
read but a home-burned one may not.
2. If you scratch up the bottom plastic surface, the cd may not read; microscopic scratches can happen and build up
with every use, to the point of looking cloudy. If you heavily scratch the top side, the cd will not completely
read. Hold the cd up to light and if you can see light through it, it may be compromised, unless the scratch is not in the
written area.
3. Sunlight and moisture are the two main other enemies of a cd. Sunlight can warp them, or the light can fog
the bottom plastic surface. Liquid or high moisture can cause the top layer to lift or curl.
4. If you can safely store and use the cd's, they should last decades. Unlike tapes, magnetism won't affect them.
5. Some brand cd's burn better and may be more resistant to concerns mentioned,which is the only reason they would seem to last longer.
6. Yes, make a dupe of ANY cd, one to use and scratch, and one to re-copy from.

Data Rot or Bit Rot are the terms used to describe this. In a way these are misleading as data itself has no physical properties to rot. However, the physical media data is stored upon can do exactly that - rot. It only takes a tiny degree of physical degradation, usually quite invisible to the human eye, to affect data. Older storage media such as floppy disks and magnetic tape were more prone to "rot" phenomena as they could also lose their magnetic alignment over time.

CDs and DVDs made of high quality material have little to no ability to "rot" but the usual lower end disks often can and do lose data over time. CDs can lose their reflective coating over time and thus become useless. This type of "rot" is called "bronzing" and is one that is visible to the human eye. The disks gradually turn brownish in color usually beginning at the outer edge of the cd and spreading toward the center almost like a fungus. This problem, thankfully, is not as common today as it was in the 1990s although older disks from that time period may yet become "bronzed" so if you have any, it would be a very good idea to make copies on newer disks.

CDs can lose their reflective coating in other ways too - oxydation, scratches, even melting in a hot car. A DVD on the other hand has an extra layer of plastic atop the reflective section thus is less prone to problems of this type. They are not without their own issues though. Many DVDs have proven to be prone to a problem called "delamination" which is oddly similar to the older "bronzing" problem of CDs. You can read more about the physical structure of CDs and DVDs and their similarities and differences at http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cd1.htm and http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/dvd.htm. Also, it is worth mentioning that CD-RW disks are quicker to degrade than non-rewriteable disks. Their material is easier to melt or become otherwise unreadable than the material used to make non-rewriteable disks.

The general consensus for extending CD and DVD life often comes down to how they are stored. It seems most claim that CDs and DVDs should be stored in jewel cases for optimum "shelf life". This allows the recordable surfaces of the disks to remain effectively untouched while stored. Paper jackets, envelopes, and CD binders are considered to be not so good as the disk surface is continually in contact with the storage device. However, such methods of storage for CDs and DVDs are considered better than no protection at all.

In verifying my facts for this response, I ran across something else I'd not seen before which seems worth mentioning here - Apparently some claim that specific data formats have better archival abilities than do others. The article states that the file type used can indeed matter and claims that the more stable formats are: ASCII text, PDF, RTF, PNG, TIFF, JPEG, MP3, WSAV, AIFF, MPEG, and DBF. It lists as unstable formats DOC, GIF, BMP, AU, WMV, RA, AVI, MOV, and all Excel and MS Access file formats. I believe they were also adding in to their measures of stability the likelihood of such formats being able to be read by tomorrows devices but this is something that bears looking into further. I found this blurb within a rather long document at: http://www.slais.ubc.ca/PEOPLE/students/student-projects/C_Hill/hill_libr516/print.htm - it is listed within the document under the heading of "The Future".

Wikipedia has a good article on CDs that includes much information on the various types of dyes used to produce the coating on CDs. Apparently the type of dye used directly affects the "shelf life" of a CD. This article can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R The same article itself echoes what seems to be most often written - that lower end CDs tend to have a useful life of anywhere from one to five years but that higher end CDs effectively have no specific limit to their lifespans as yet. Some manufacturers are claiming archival life of as much as 300 years with the more common claim being 100 years for archival quality CDs. MAM-A (http://www.mam-a.com/) claims a 300 year shelf life for their Gold Archive CD disks and a 100 year shelf life for their Archive Grade DVDs. Other brands known for longevity are Taiyo Yuden, Ricoh, TDK, and Verbatim. A caution here though - most of these manufacturers also make low end disks so be sure the disks you are buying state that they are archival quality.

I will end here before I write a book but want to mention one more thing: As with any and everything, if it matters to you, back it up, back it up, and back it up again! Anything important should have at least 3 copies with at least one stored in a separate location in case of disaster. To avoid the issue of degradation as much as possible, it is not at all a bad idea to take a day or two each year and re-backup your backups. In other words, copy all your archives to yet another, new CD or DVD. Copy your oldest copies each year and the degradation issue should not be a problem at all. If this is Just Too Much to do then you might also want to copy your CDs and DVDs onto an external hard drive or two and at least re-copy that every year. This of course would be an easier and less time consuming process as theoretically you could set the copy process in motion and leave it alone til done whereas with disks you need to be present to continually change them out.

Happy copying!

I have been trying to find the answer to a similar problem.
What is the most secure method of storing documents and photographs?
I have discovered that some of my cds have info on them that was created by older programs I had on an old computer and now they won't read because that program is no longer available.
Should you change all pics to JPGs?
Any info greatly appreciated.
wycca28

From my own experience, they do have a shelf life, but it's really more related to the amount of playback, and not length of time stored. I have burned many CD's and they play fine for a while, then begin to get corrupt. At that time, I burn a new copy. If they are stored after burning and not played, they play back months and even years later. The CD's and DVD R's you buy in the stores have a burning surface which is ink and that's what the data burns into. Evidently the ink degrades with use. Professionally made CD's have a different medium and are much more permanent.
I have a master external hard drive which I store my favorite files on, and burn CD's off it when I need them. I avoid using the external to run the files to preserve them and have never had a loss this way. And with the terabite hard drives available, you can store as many files as you want. Again, I just use burnt CD's as a temporary playback medium.

I have certainly found failures in my transferred home movies after a very few years.