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03/01/2010 09:28:40 AM · #1 |
I am curious about this...you hear all the time that CD's and DVD's you put your pictures on have a finite lifespan and that they will be unreadable (possibly) after like 5 years - a time span I seem to hear/read a lot. But what confuses me is this: I was going through some old music CD's this weekend and realized I had many that were well over 10 years old and ALL of them play just fine (I have a few that are almost 20 years old). I also have photo CD's that are well over 5 years and they all read fine.
So my question is: Why is the media we put our pictures on susceptible to deterioration in a few years but the CD's we purchase, as in music, etc. are not? Is this just a scare tactic to get us gullible photographers to buy more stuff we may not actually need? Eliminating any outside factors such as improper storage or use, is there really a problem? |
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03/01/2010 09:41:12 AM · #2 |
Not sure I have a total answer to your question, but I can clear up a couple of things.
CD's and DVD's are not magnetic, but optical in nature. They use microscopic pits in the surface of the disk to reflect the read laser in such a way as to encode the data.
The store bought disks are pressed (usually), while the ones from a CD burner are encoded by the devices laser. There are some differences between them. I've read some reports that theorized burned disks may actually outlast pressed ones due to factors related to deterioration.
There are some optical media that are better made and longer lasting than others. I don't have any reccomendations, offhand, however.
I must say however, that between huge hard drives, optical disks and flash memory, I am not missing floppy disks at all.
Message edited by author 2010-03-01 09:41:47. |
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03/01/2010 03:13:05 PM · #3 |
| Ahh...I just noticed I put magnetic in the title. My mistake. I actually started writing one thing, ended up erasing it and posting what you see above. So the title doesn't fit. |
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03/01/2010 03:39:33 PM · #4 |
| Here is a more detailed explanation that I found, including some links with even more info. |
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