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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : CD/DVD
| Author | Message | ||||
Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9709 |
Hello everyone.  I discovered a whole HEAP of old CD-R and DVD-R spindles today, complete with several years worth of dust and dirt that had settled on the top of the plastic spindle covers. Most of these optical disks date from about the year 2000, so roughly 25 years old. I have been able to read most of them using an old IDE DVD-ROM drive with USB adaptor. I chose that drive over a plain USB CD drive, as the old one is probably better at reading the old formats. False logic? (rhetorical!) Anyway, this has been going along nicely, copying all the old discs into my new Linux Mint machine, for backup onto an external USB HDD. But I DID find one that was impressively degraded - we're talking 25 years since it was written, back on 20th of May in the year 2000.... Surprisingly, ALL OF THIS DISC was readable, as the writable area HAD NOT been affected....but it was millimeters from being so!  Here is an image:  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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Martin H. Guru  Joined: 04/06/2022 Location: GermanyPosts: 1297 |
Hi Grogster, I had some nasty surprises with these transparent sleeves that you can use to store CDs in folders. After two to three years, the plasticizer in the plastic sleeves caused thumb-sized holes to appear in the coating of the CDs. No, the CDs were no longer readable.  'no comment |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9709 |
Wow!   DVR-R and CD-R mediums were never designed to be long-term data storage, so I guess I'm doing OK being able to read most of the ones I have tried so far!  But that's the first I have heard about the plastic sleeve issue. I've stored all my original CD's and DVD's in folders like that. Perhaps I had better check they are still OK in there, cos I haven't touched those in years either! Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| al18 Senior Member  Joined: 06/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 231 |
CD-R and DVD-R use dye in the medium. Dye’s don’t last forever. I think sunlight can degrade the dye’s also. Commercial CD and DVD are quite different - a thin layer of aluminum has pits burned into them when made. These have a much longer life. Edited 2025-10-20 10:37 by al18 |
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bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2970 |
Hi Grogs, I rarely burn CD/DVD/BDR these days but I did have many `surprises' with disks not being readable after as little as 6 mths. There was a particular bad brand/model of RiTech or RiData that bragged about their organic dyes, well they DIED ok, most were not readable after a few months. These had a very characteristic deep purple/aubergine colour.. Mick . Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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