how good is the data reliability with CD ROM and DVD RAM?

[Zane Healy]

> On Jul 24, 2018, at 10:55 AM, Grant Taylor via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
>> On 7/21/18 9:14 AM, Carlo Pisani via cctalk wrote:
>> what is your experience?
> I personally have had reasonable success with CD-Rs.
> 
> I used Verbatim Blue CD-Rs for general storage back when I had a single 6.4 GB drive in '98.  I have recently read the contents of all the surviving disks with no problems that weren't resolved by a damp washcloth gently wiping the underside of the disk.
> 
> I do seem to recall I had one disk that failed within a few months from what seemed to be fungus or rot.  I never knew.  I got rid of it quickly.
> 
> All the other disks that I burned at 1x have lasted the better part of 20 years.
> 
> Honestly, I have more concern about functional CD-ROM drives more so than I do the media.  More and more machines I'm around don't actually have a drive capable of reading CD-ROMs.
> 
> I was also exposed to some people using the El-Cheapo light (faint) green CD-Rs and they would end up having problems reliably reading from them a week or two later.  I think they usually burned them as fast as their drive would allow.  To me, old AOL floppy disks were more reliable than the light green CD-Rs burned at high speed.
> 
> I would only tolerate light green burned at 1x if I needed to move bulk data between machines and networking was not an option.  Once the data was there, I considered the CD-R to be dead and frequently physically destroyed it.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Grant. . . .
> unix || die
> 


For me, the Verbatim DataLifePlus has always been the disks that I trust.  Though at this point I should review what is on them and move the data to online archives if I care about it.  Realistically a lot is old backups.  So far I’ve never had a problem with them, except bad burns on a flaky drive or system.

I have used cheap blanks for Linux installs, or to give someone copies of my photos.

Zane