Longevity of DVD-R and CD-R (Was MagTapes)

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 00:27:12 GMT Philip Pemberton <philpem at dsl.pipex.com> wrote: Sometimes I wonder if the high-speed CD-ROM drives we all enjoy now are always as good as they're thought to be. I remember my first experience with a > 4x drive. I was used to the older drives which spin slower, and the new fast drive 'spun up' like there was a big noisy machine (there was) inside the PC Case. Perhaps there should be effort spent on a more reliable grade of CD-ROM technology that emphasizes reliability and long term life over rip-roaring speed. I can't help but think that spinning your important archival CDs at a 2x reading speed would be easier on them than the screaming fast rate most are read at now. Would the CMC-made "unbranded" blank have delaminated in a 2x drive? Probably not. Not that the particular CMC media should be 'championed' in any way, but spinning things faster is bound to accelerate deterioriation.