Warning!!! Sun and CD = very bad combo!

Hello to all.

First let me say that I know about this topic being posted in the wrong forum, but I really would like to reach the widest audience possible with this serious warning, therefore I am posting it in one of the liveliest forums.

There have been a few discussions regarding the longevity of CD's. None were really conclusive and none reported actual loss of data. Well; it just happened to me.

I had a few discs sitting in a semiclear Kensiko Systems CD storage unit. The unit was placed near a sunny window for almost three months. Most CD's are allright, except for the few which were facing the sunlight. They just simply faded and lost all data. Fortunately for me, I did not delete it from my HD yet. The CD brand is Memorex, and it has a golden backing, while the recording side is (or used to be) a deep blue.
Here is a scan of the faded disc. The white part was exposed to sunlight.

This CD data loss business seems more serious than I thought. From now on, all CD's will be stored in my wine cellar.
http://www.homestead.com/oysterstudio/badcd.html
--Andrzej
http://www.oysterstudio.com

Dear Sir,
Thank you for your timely warning; I'll be more careful now!
Jerome Y.

REmember when you burn, you are replacing dyes on the Blank, It doesn't surprise me at all the sunlight would effect this.

I store purchased CD is pressed, big diff. however I would never expose either to intense heat or sunlight.

Paul

Jerome said:

Dear Sir,
Thank you for your timely warning; I'll be more careful now!
Jerome Y.

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Bananas in Paris said:

This CD data loss business seems more serious than I thought. From
now on, all CD's will be stored in my wine cellar.
http://www.homestead.com/oysterstudio/badcd.html

--
Andrzej
http://www.oysterstudio.com

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Hello,

I'd be concerned with the controlled (increased) humidity in your wine cellar. While you wouldn't want your corks to dry out, one doesn't want damp CD's either.

Mine are in my closet.

Thanks for the info, take care,

F.J.

It is my closet, which keeps the occasional bottle of cheap wine handy.
I'll just add the CD's now.

Andrzej

F.J. said:

F.J. said:

This CD data loss business seems more serious than I thought. From
now on, all CD's will be stored in my wine cellar.
http://www.homestead.com/oysterstudio/badcd.html

--
Andrzej
http://www.oysterstudio.com

Click to expand...

Hello,

I'd be concerned with the controlled (increased) humidity in your
wine cellar. While you wouldn't want your corks to dry out, one
doesn't want damp CD's either.

Mine are in my closet.

Thanks for the info, take care,

F.J.

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Andrzej,

What CD is best to serve with fish?

-TD

Certainly not a red one:
http://store.yahoo.com/cd-recordable-dot-com/orredcdrub741.html

Tony Donaldson said:

Andrzej,

What CD is best to serve with fish?

-TD

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to pick up the subject again:
which CDR brand or type is the best for archival storage:
Is it Gold, Silver or Black?

Andrzej

Paul C. said:

Tony Donaldson said:

Andrzej,

What CD is best to serve with fish?

-TD

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This link has some information on cdr longevity. The jury still seems to be out...
http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/Media/Longevity.html

andrzej said:

Andrzej

Paul C. said:

Tony Donaldson said:

Andrzej,

What CD is best to serve with fish?

-TD

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I found a great little program called CD-R Scanner online. Don't know if it's available for the PC or not, as I'm a Mac user. On the Mac use a Sherlock search on the web, for you PC folk try using Google.com I guess.

It checks how well your information is burned onto each CD, and can tell you if you have slow or bad sectors, and gives a lot of detailed info and a bar chart to tell you how good your ones and zeroes are on there. Have tried this with CDs from a few years ago to see how they are holding up, and so far, so good.

Actually there really aren't any real gold CD'Rs anymore. Too expensive to mfg. and all the color on top of the disc (metalization layer) is for reflectivity only. The real magic is in the dye layer seen from the bottom. Gold CD'rs that are sold now typically are printed with a gold ink underneath the lacquer coating to give the appearence of a gold metalization. I think they do this for the audiophiles who think gold discs sound better! Black CDR's were made for Playstation game developers for test purposes. As always happens- some unscrupulous individuals figured out they can also make illegal copies of playstation games and a new industry was born!

GR

andrzej said:

Andrzej

Paul C. said:

Tony Donaldson said:

Andrzej,

What CD is best to serve with fish?

-TD

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