Archiving

[fran reisner]

I was reading my monthly newsletter from Miller's Professional Imaging (my lab of choice) this morning and came across some information on Archiving that I thought you ALL might find interesting. This is something few of us really want to think about, but all of us should...

Archiving
by Dick Coleman

Now that much of the image storage is on
CD rather than film, we need to be sure we are
archiving CDs the recommended way. Disk
quality can make a drastic impact in storage life.
Consumer grade media (and this is assuming
a good initial recording) can last one to five
years. That’s right! Professional-grade media
can last from five to 75 years. This is quoted
by Tom Peterson, Product Line Manager for
Rimage Corporation. He further explains some
of the brands that are consistently appearing
at the top of everyone’s ratings including Taiyo
Yuden, Maxell, Ricoh, TDK and Verbatim. Taiyo
Yuden, which is what we use, is what most
people who use media for a living will buy. It
is very high in quality, very consistent and has
performed very well in the ISO 1827-2002 test
(a government testing standard).

Taiyo Yuden estimates that the storage life
of their CD-R media will exceed 100 years provided
that:

1. The disc is properly recorded without errors
2. The recorded disc is verified by high quality
test equipment
3. The disc is stored vertically in an industry
standard jewel case
4. The temperature in storage does not
exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit nor fall
below 0 degrees Fahrenheit
5. The storage temperature does not change
more than 10 degrees per hour
6. The relative humidity in storage is
between 10% and 60%
7. The relative humidity does not change
more than 10% per hour
8. The storage area is free of vibration
and shock
9. The disc is not exposed to direct sunlight
10. The disc does not come into contact with
organic solvents
11. The disc is not physically damaged during
storage or use
Other suggestions are to avoid flexing or
bending the disc and never write on the top of
a disc with a pencil or ballpoint pen.

A governmental agency called NIST is working
on universal standards that all media
manufacturers will adhere to which will label
media with an estimated life. This could happen
as early as a year from now. But for the
time being, be sure that you begin with high
quality media for your image storage, then
store your images properly.

Because storage technology changes so
quickly, there is a very strong possibility that
the longevity of these CDs may not be a problem.
Even with the best recording and storage
methods available, the long term ability to
retrieve an image also depends on the availability
of equipment and software compatible
with the disc and format. Keeping our stored
images updated to state-of-the-art media will
be an ongoing challenge.

[haraki74]

I read that this week also, it is certainly a wake-up call for those of us who think digital media will last forever..

[laawaaris]

I think DVDs (DVD-R, etc) may have a longer "life-span" than CD-Rs do. I think CD is good for the short-term but DVD is a good option as a master copy for all images.

Plus the notes about Taiyo Yuden recording data without errors is nice to know - but I think the recording is also somewhat a function of the software you use to record the disc. Software sort of oversees the process of burning even though the burner and disc do all the work - but in the end the software should make sure the data is correctly transferred to disc.

Anyhow, I found another article with slightly different information about CD lifespan here: http://www.techmount.com/index.php/2.../dvd-lifespan/. I found when you go to different CD-makers websites, many of them say their lifespan is about 100 years! I guess everyone is jumping in on the extensive lifespan game.

[terse22]

I've used Taiyo Yuden for years, CDR and DVDR and I could not tell you the last time I burned a coaster and I burn thousands a year for customers and archival purposes using an Rimage machine. I recently had to retieve images from 2000 and had no problems. I would highly recommend TY's for archival, after all I believe they are the actual inventors of CDR...........

[JamesB]

I have some cheepy CD's (music) that I burned 5+ years ago and they are just fine today.

James