Storage - CD's and DVD's

[sbeswick]

I currently store most CD's and DVD's in a binder (i.e. Case Logic) which holds the disks 4 to a page in little plastic sleeves. I keep it sitting upright on a book shelf.

Is this a safe way of storing disc's? I hate having a ton of jewel cases to sort through to find disc's but I also don't want to shorten their lifespan.

[Mug Funky]

i keep mine on the spindles they come on. i'm not sure if this is good for long-term though. haven't had any discs long enough to know if there's a problem with storage.

i guess so long as you treat them alright they'll be fine - just don't do what i did and get little grains of sand caught between discs on a spindle that you keep in your bag. that'll scratch 'em up good - the top surface of 1 and the reading surface of the one above it (top surface isn't such an issue with DVDs as they have a big thick plastic top layer, rather than reflective layer with (maybe) a thin filmsy coating like CDs. the reflective surface can peel right off CDs if they're crap enough. but likewise, throw a crap DVD against a wall and it'll split into 2 discs (i did this to a DVD because i was pissed at it not reading in my brand new 108).

the case logic thing will do, i think. nice and soft place to put them, but solid too. beware of badly designed disc wallets though - some of them require you to scrape one CD to remove the one in the next sleeve.

[neo75903]

I use a similar binder from aidata.
http://www.aidata.com.tw/product.fcgi?CMD=open&UID=551
They were very cheap, caint remember the price, but i did compared prices, but this one came out as one of the more affordable ones.

The soft layer is most important to prevent scratches by slipping in and out the pages.
Been using for about 2 years havent caused one cd to fail so far.
And i love them, i currently have about 3 binders in use and all the space i am saving is increadable.

[shevegen]

Here is a professional DVD killer... nothing kills a DVD faster than scratches... hehe

i dont even know how i scratched it.... more or less normal usage.

But those which i didnt touch are still fine so maybe its my fingers :P
My pseudo solution up so far was to keep multiple copies of for example the avi files... only problem were the original DVDs... scratched... big problem... very unfortunate, some of these i did not backup at all and now they have some playback errors :(

I still love harddiscs though!

[zilog jones]

I'm starting to really hate CD-Rs that come in full-size jewel cases now. I don't really have any defined place for storing my CDs, they're just dispersed over three different drawers in my house and left in big piles on my desk. I find the half-size cases much more bearable, though.

I've had some CD-Rs for over three years now, and haven't had a single one die on me, except for a few where I've borked them by trying to use a combination of Roxio DirectCD and Nero for multisessions. After that, I've never touched any of those UDF monstrocities ever again. I usually store CDs away from sunlight and heat sources when possible - but those two things don't occur much in Ireland anyway :D

I'd say sunlight is pretty bad for cheaper CD-Rs - I remember seeing some of my cousin's (who was going to college in Mississippi at the at the time) where the reflective layer was cracking/peeling around the edges.

[bb]

If you ask me, there are three points to respect for long-term storage:

1. Don't scratch the discs.
2. Keep them in a dark place (avoid direct exposure to sunlight).
3. Pray that your discs have been manufactured properly, so that the oxygen can't come in from the sides (i.e. between the glued layers).

bb

[neo75903]

@zilog:
yeah, i had a batch of bad discs as well, and i discovered that the stuff was coming out was based on cyanide, highly toxic.
Got rid of them as soon i could.

@bb:
are more known brands more reliable then white products?
At the end sony's are more expensive then a spindle from a unknow name.
But then i hear they all come from the manufacture and labeled on order...

[bb]

Originally posted by neo75903
[...]are more known brands more reliable then white products?[...]
From my own experience I can say that brands like Verbatim, TDK, etc. are more reliable that lowest-cost no-names. I have seen bady manufactured discs, where you could see a gap between the layers...

For storage of home-made films I don't trust the very cheap stuff. I guess it's better to spend a few cents extra for quality, if the footage is unique. For DVD backups that's not as important, because you can always get the video again from the store.

bb

[RedBeard]

I use slim line jewel cases, you can pick them up from meritline.com around .20 each in bulk. add that to the Great azo blanks I get from the same place (.25 each in bulk) and my average cost per backup is around .50 each (+ a little time)I have used more expensive name brand disks, and pretty much everything inbetween during my 600+ backup run, aside from the <1% failure rate during the burn process (mostly my errors) I havent had any problems with the Great AZO disk even after being stored in the slimline cases a while.