Re: tape digitizing

["Dan Dugan" dandugan_1999]

John, you wrote,

> In my opinion, hard drives are the best.

Seems to me a properly-stored CD-R might be accessible longer than a  
hard drive. The hard drive interface is likely to be obsolete sooner,  
and the unused mechanism likely to get sticky.

> Google the longevity of a CD-R and you'll hear the manufacturers  
> talk about 30-100 years.  That won't happen.  Tech circles talk in  
> terms of 5-10.

Can you point me to a source for that information?

What's the failure mode? The "mark" on a CD-R is the dye layer having  
been overheated to a sort of foam that scatters light, right? I'm  
thinking it won't read if 1) the transparency of the plastic is lost,  
2) the reflective layer isn't reflective any more, or 3) the dye layer  
decays so the mark-space transmissivity contrast degrades.

-Dan Dugan