Reliability of CD-RW Discs 41
Fruck asks: "I've been using CD-RW discs to store my important data for the last year, with no problems. However, I fear that one day, somehow the data could be gone because of general wear and tear on the disk. I'm wondering if anyone else who uses CD-RW heavily has experienced any problems with data loss... " Interesting question. Wonder which one fares better: CD-Rs or CD-RWs?
On CD-R reliability. (Score:1)
CD-R Reliability (Score:1)
My experience (Score:1)
Re:CD-RW as a Read/write disk. (Score:2)
I'm afraid I don't have a number, but I remember something in the neighborhood of 1000 writes? Maybe somebody else can comment.
Re:CD-R k(un)reliability (Score:2)
Re:CD-R k(un)reliability (Score:1)
Acutally, I thought that CD-R changed the opacity of the plastic rather than the reflective label, which was why they were light sensitive in the first place.
Real CDs have an aluminum layer which is pitted at the 1/4 wavelength "depth" IIRC.
CD-R and CD-RW reliability (Score:1)
CD-R is much less particular. Most DVD-ROM drives won't read them (although that is improving with newer drives). I have CD-R media three years old (both data and audio), many of which have sat on the dashboard of my van for weeks or even months (not direct sunlight, but wildly varying temperatures, -10 up to 130F. I have yet to encounter any reported errors.
I am pretty dang careful in creation though... disks remain sealed until ready to be written to and are blown with canned air to remove any dust prior to being recorded.
CD-R vs. CD-RW (Score:1)
If you don't have off-site backup, you don't have backup.
"But hey, doesn't everyone have a Liebert?" I give up, what's a Liebert?
Re:CD-R k(un)reliability (Score:1)
Re:On CD-R reliability. (Score:1)
Re:On CD-R reliability. (Score:2)
Don't know if anyone has any evidence to support this, but I've heard that the ones that appear gold on the bottom layer are supposed to last longer. The ones that are dark blue are supposed to be the next most durable, and the silver ones are supposed to be the least durable. Of course, this could easily be a marketing ploy.
A friend that has a pretty extensive collection of Grateful Dead shows (400+ shows straight from the boards, most with 2 discs) swears by the Maxell ones with the gold bottoms. Since I buy by the 100, and the price difference per disk is about 65 cents, I follow his advice.
Re:Zip (Score:1)
I would place Zip discs at the bottom of my recommended media list. They're slightly more reliable than a floppy, but floppies have the added advantage of not being able to destroy your drive when they go bad (yes, I'm referring to the ClickO'Death.)
With zip the older the better. (Score:1)
YMMV. At least I hope it would since based on what I've seen I must be doing something wrong
Packet Writing? (Score:1)
Re:CD-R vs. CD-RW (Score:2)
CD-R k(un)reliability (Score:1)
Re:CD-RW as a Read/write disk. (Score:1)
Re:On CD-R reliability. (Score:1)
my cd-rs are all now in the fridge. the mp3s are safe.
Re:On CD-R reliability. (Score:1)
This reminds me of claims I heard about 10 years ago that if you colored the edges of CDs with permanent markers, you'd get better sound quality. This claim might be similarly mythical, or there could be some long-term color drift that affects the accuracy of readings due to color bias of the lasers themselves.
There were also rumors that the original CDs would decay and cease to work, but as far as I can see there's no failure rate of old CDs (15+ yrs) caused by aging. I don't doubt the author's claims, nor would I take them as gospel. It stands to reason that CD-R is more reliable than CD-RW in the long run, and that you shouldn't trust untested factors (lifespan of CD-Rs) in your long-range planning unless you have evidence to back it up.
CD-RW as a Read/write disk. (Score:1)
Oh Yea, you can run ScanDisk and Defrag on them too.
Zip/SuperDisk failure (Score:1)
1. I've had mulitple zip disks lost to the "Click of Death"
2. Super Disks are REALLLY slow.
Whick makes the CD-RW's a good idea.
Re:CD-RW - avoid for critical data (Score:1)
Re:On CD-R reliability. (Score:1)
Re:CD-R k(un)reliability (Score:1)
I trust my DLT - only backup device I trust at all. It's so consistently reliable - media and drive mechanism.
If I have any doubts or questions, then its not a good backup device. I through money into backups, in the hope I never really need them.
Re:Zip (Score:1)
Here's a link: Information on the click of death [grc.com]
Iomega is digging it's own grave.
"Now you can see that evil will triumph, because good is dumb!"
R/RW media reliability. (Score:1)
Re:CD-R k(un)reliability (Score:1)
CD-RW - avoid for critical data (Score:1)
If you've got a CD-RW drive, then you also have a CD-R burner. At well under a USA buck a blank these days, do yourself a favor and just blow out your backups and archival datasets out to a CD-R disk, which you'll be able to read later on just about any CDROM drive on the planet.
Re:CD-R k(un)reliability (Score:1)
Pretty much all 2nd gen and better should... (Score:1)
Anonymous Coward, get it?
CD-R only drives are still around. Can be good buy (Score:1)
Try somewhere like www.hypermicro.com for 6x24 teacs and 3 different 8x20 brands. There is a 8x2x20 plextor and a 6x4x24 yamaha but notice the price
R/W costs more, is read by less drives, and so far it seems the consensus is that it isn't as reliable as plain old R.
Soooo, some of us don't need r/W, and would rather just get our R in half the time or less.
Anonymous Coward, get it?
LS/120 -- SuperDisk!!! (Score:1)
If you want to store files somewhere other than on the HDD or the network, use a high-volume, fully rewritable storage medium like SuperDisk.
The Zip/SuperDisk issue is another thread altogether though...
Re:CD-R k(un)reliability (Score:1)
Re:CD-RW - avoid for critical data (Score:1)
Re:CD-R k(un)reliability (Score:1)