naturerecordists
[Top] [All Lists]

RE: Re: cds as archive medium - maybe not!

Subject: RE: Re: cds as archive medium - maybe not!
From: "Laloux, Dominique" <>
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2003 22:10:11 +0200
Thanks for the translation, Evert.
Disturbing, to say the least... I wonder if there were other similar studies
and if results from other sources are available.

Dominique Laloux
 

-----Original Message-----
From: evertveldhuis
To: 
Sent: 03/09/03 22:01
Subject: [Nature Recordists] Re: cds as archive medium - maybe not!

--- In  "evertveldhuis" 
<> wrote:
> i'll look into it and translate it
> > 
My English is a bit rusty and too formal, but I hope it will do :)

====

Tuesday august 19, 2003
CD-R's unreadable after 2 years
Random test shows disturbing results
By Jeroen Horlings

Valuable data on a CD-R aren't always keepable for long. Our test 
(published in the September issue of PC-Active) shows the data can 
become unreadable within 2 years. There is a large chance that 
important personal information is lost when using certain brands of 
CD-R's.
As a regular reader of our magazine, you probably already know we 
did extensive testing in 2001 and published the results back then. 
Those test showed that brand new CD-R's aren't up to the standard 
quality demands. We have saved the 30 different brands we tested in 
2001 in their original (unopened) seals in a closed closet. For 
the `CD-R-ROT' article, (Evert: Rot is Dutch for the decay or 
rotting process) we have again tested these discs on a professional 
CD analyzer which can accurately determine the state of the CD-R.

On this picture you see the same exact CD-R. On the left the test 
result of 2001, on the right the same CD-R in 2003. The colors show 
the degree of errors in the order white, green, yellow and red. This 
stands for good readable (white), to unreadable (red).
The tests showed that some CD-R's were completely unreadable, and 
with some CD-R's part of the data was unreadable. Data burned on CD 
some 20 months ago had become unreadable. These were CD-R's from 
both well known as lesser known brands.

Often one assumes that CD-R's can store its data for at least 10 
years. Some manufacturers claim a tenability of a century. Our 
random test shows there is a lot of garbage on the market. We have 
found CD-R's that shouldn't have been allowed to be sold. These are 
clearly discarded stacks (Evert: discarded as in ; material that 
failed to meet the quality demands and should be dumped in the 
garbage bin). It is totally unacceptable that CD-R's become 
completely unusable within 2 years.

In the September issue (in the stores at August 22), the shocking 
results are described extended(ly). Besides the possible reasons for 
loosing data, we also give valuable tips to keep your data safe for 
the future. On the enclosed free CD-ROM is a software application to 
test the quality of your own CD-R.

====

Regards, Evert - Dutch Dude who is gonna buy the magazine to own 
that CD-R test software thingie :)




To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:


 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 



________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the naturerecordists mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU