Are CDs safe to store pix on? (1 Viewer)

This article at The Register http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/32593.html says that data recorded onto CD-R can be lost in under two years. That without them being exposed to sunlight.

I typically backup my pix on to CD which is quite the handiest form to store them. I have yet to fill my hard disk up but the time will come when I have to start deleting stuff.

Should I avoid cheapo CDs?

That's a little worrying to read about. The article does seem to be about the 'white' surfaced CDRs but doesn't mention whether anyone has actually tested the manufacturer's claims for the branded ones. I seem to recall them claiming they lasted 65+ years and to be the safest medium for storing photos. Perhaps this isn't the case after all. Forunately I do use premium CDRs and after reading this will definitely be doing so in the furture.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention Alastair.

Worrying, indeed!
I wonder what the best (affordable) alternative is?
At work they use zipdiscs ($13 for 250Mb on one web site I looked at).

OMG! Don't even think about using Zip discs as an alternative to CDR! A Zip disc is probably the most unreliable medium you can buy, with the possible (and I mean possible) exception of the old-fashioned floppy disc. (Don't laugh: a good quality floppy disc, looked after properly, was a lot better than we tend to think these days. Sure, I have lots of floppies fail, but my floppies are how old now? Ten years? And not been stored properly either.)

And, as Surreybirder points out, Zip discs are mega-expensive. At my current rate, I'd spend enough on Zip discs to buy a new APO Leica or Swarovski HD scope every year!

Tapes are not a great deal better, and fiddly damn things at the best of times. You can get very cheap storage on a per-MB basis out of tapes, but only if you step up to a DAT drive, and they cost a fortune: roughly AU$1500 for a Sony or a Seagate 20GB unit by the time you buy the SCSI card (and you need SCSI - they are not available in IDE). The tapes themselves are about $20 or $30 each - i.e., the same price as a Zip disc, only they store roughly 100 times more data. Alas, tapes are magnetic, and no magnetic storage device can be trusted for more than about 5 years. They very gradually self-erase. So do Zip discs (not that you can expect the average Zip disc to last for 5 years in the first place), and so do floppy discs -- and so do hard drives.

Hard drives are astonishingly cheap these days and remarkably reliable. But they are no good for the long-term as they self-erase eventually, and they can fail at any time, with or without warning. Sometimes it's possible to take them to a data recovery expert, but it costs anywhere from AU$1500 up to have a single drive recovered - i.e., the prce of a Coolpix 4500 plus a little more.

In short, optical storage is the only viable option. CDR, CDRW or DVD.

Or, as Disraeli once said about democracy:

CDs are the worst possible form of storage ........ except for all the other forms of storage.

(Gahhh - two edits for typos - I'm going to sin-bin myself until I remember how to type without makkinhg soo maany mmiztakes.)

The best practice is to always make a backup CD and at least once every two years, ensure you can read files both from the primary and backup.

rka said:

The best practice is to always make a backup CD and at least once every two years, ensure you can read files both from the primary and backup.

Click to expand...

Blimey! Can you imagine all us well organised birders doing that?

I have some home made CDs, CDR once recordable, music that has been in the car at over 37 C degrees in the summer. Some of them have gone bad in 2 yrs. Of course you can lose a few percent of music and still be able to play it, data you can't lose any!

Magnetic devives...diskettes, tape drives, Sony Mini Disc, can last 20 years, provided there is still a device to read it.

Over 40 yrs, there only black and white prints on acid free paper will be useful!

I agree, Tero. Perhaps I was unclear in my language as well as my typing above. I'd expect a magnetic record (on a hard drive, for example) to last for 10 to 20 years, but I'd only rely on if for 5 years.

How long would I trust CDRs for? Hmmm .... good question. Hasn't really been an issue for me until now. You have to keep business records for 7 years (that's Australian tax law), and after that they don't matter. But I'd like to think my bird photographs will be still worth having long after that.

(Dream on, Tannin: your pictures are not that good.)

This thread might be of interest: http://www.storageforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2706

I guess the only answer is to make backups of backups. I back up my photos on my work pc as well as my home pc--when I remember.
BTW. The Disraeli quote was actually Churchill, I believe

The storageforum discussion is about right. I can only use Sony blanks on my current burner. I have Memorexes that have played for 3 yrs. The typical store brand sold by the 100 is the worst.

I recently attended the PhotoHistory Symposium in Rochester, New York and discussed the permanence issue with some pros who have everything invested in their images. Key points:

1. Hard drives crash and are not permanent.
2. Premium CDs are better than cheap ones.
3. If you really want your images to last ( ie: museums seeking to make lasting copies of their images ) - shoot Kodachrome. It is the best of all, for color. ( Silver on paper is fine, of course, for black and white - properly processed of course ). You can then scan your slides into your computer if you like. This defeats the efficiency of original digital work, but it is the most permanent. Keep the original slides in the freezer.

George Layne