Life (Length) of a DVD+R

[iKwak]

I like to archive several important documents into a DVD+R (RIDATA).

Do you know what the life length of the DVD+R are?
Meaning, how long will the content be retained in the DVD+R?

[Koepi]

This depends on many, many factors.

a) Quality of the DVD-R itself.
b) Quality of the burning - i.e. writing a 16x media at 8x will produce better results and result in longer life span.
c) How you keep your dvd media. Bright environments will kill the data earlier.

In the last or current c't there was an article about this issue. You're better off burning important data to DVD +/- RW as the data layer material lasts longer (if I remember correctly it's an anorganic material).

IHTH

Koepi

[Arachnotron]

There is a 50 page manual on storage and the handling of DVD's and CD's on the NIST website:

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/

[edit]

and this is a study on the stability of optical discs:

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/gipwg/StabilityStudy.pdf

[pieroxy]

Originally posted by Koepi
You're better off burning important data to DVD +/- RW as the data layer material lasts longer Longer than what?

[atreides93]

Thanks for posting the NIST studies. Fascinating stuff.
I'm going to sit down and read the stability study.

[Video Dude]

Originally posted by pieroxy
Longer than what? Koepi said DVD +/- RW should last longer than DVD +/- R.

[pieroxy]

Originally posted by Video Dude
Koepi said DVD +/- RW should last longer than DVD +/- R. Oh! ok... Well, although the material should last longer (Even if the studies posted don't say anything about it), there are two problems with DVD-+RW:
1. You (or anyone else) can erase it. Mistakes are a very good way to loose data. Never would I back up something valuable on a RW!!
2. The material is built to be erased. So of course, external factors can erase it, it has been made for that!

Oh well, I just burned a DVD-R with a few MP3s I just backed up, and the DVD is unreadable on both my DVD-ROM drives. CRC Errors all over the place.

So many other factors are at play here, it's hard to say which is best...

[The Edge]

How long do DVDs last? (http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.12)

If the disc is looked after then I wouldn't worry too much.

[pieroxy]

Originally posted by The Edge
How long do DVDs last? (http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.12)

If the disc is looked after then I wouldn't worry too much. Well, not only you succeed in not answering the original question, but you actually also succeed in raising another one ;).

"If the disc is looked after"
Well, how to look after a disc? It may sound stupid, but there are a few tricky things about it. Reading the papers posted above will help answering that question.

"I wouldn't worry too much"
That means by definition so little that it is not really worth anything. What are your criteria to decide if you need to worry? How long without loosing a single bit?

Anyways, to (try to) end the thread, I'd say the two articles linked are a good read. Unfortunately, many and many factors other than the pure physical quality of the disc come into play when it comes to estimating the lifespan of a CD/DVD-R. Handling is one, a proper burn is another.

I'd suggest burning at 1X and not coming at less than 1 meter from your PC when burning something really valuable. It may sound stupid, but so many factors can affect a good burn: vibrations in the PC (due to another CDROM drive reading at 52x), buffer underrun protections (induce a gap that is within the specs limits, but is known to generate errors on old drives).

Oh well, end of my $.02

[Arachnotron]

I'd suggest burning at 1X and not coming at less than 1 meter from your PC when burning something really valuable.I'm not sure about this, I also heard that the newer dyes used on high speed CD-roms can give problems if you burn them at too low speeds since the laser spends too much time at the same spot, causing crystallisation or something like that, shortening the life span again.

I have no link for you to prove this, but you might want to look into it.

For CD'a, I usually burn 24-32 speed on my 52 speed burner.

[b0b0b0b]

This has bothered me too. My own thinking is to apply something like winrar's parity file feature, or "quickpar" to the data I back up, so if parts of it go bad, I can still recover the whole thing.

I've had good results with dvd+r's I burned a year or more ago by storing them in one of those zippered black cd books.

OT, but there's also a bunch of people who back up data onto digital video (DV) tapes.