Safety of using sharpies on CD-Rs without labels

[philipofmacedon]

Recently I purchased a stack of Taiyo Yuden CD-Rs for burning DC and Saturn games. Burning has been going reasonably well and I haven't made too many coasters. But the discs don't have any labels on them. I've delayed writing on them with a sharpie like I previously did on my labelled CDs.

My question is this - is it safe to write on my CDs with a sharpie? Or should I look into making labels or using some sort of special marker for this? I poked around the internet and didn't find conclusive evidence either way. Some claim that Sharpies will damage my discs while others have never reported a problem. Frankly, I'm tempted to just scribble away but I figured I'd ask.

Has anyone ever had problems just writing on unlabeled CDs with a sharpie?

Thanks guys. I apologize in advance if this has already been dealt with in a previous thread.

[D.D.D.]

I've been using Sharpies on CD-R and DVD-R for a long time now. Even burned CDs from 10 years ago (PS1) still work just fine. I can't imagine anything bad happening to them. Now your own eyes and nose, that's another story.
And yes, all my CDs/DVDs are label-free... Don't like them at all.

[racketboy]

Same here -- it's actually safer than labels.
Labels can peel and or be uneven causing the disc to spin improperly.

[Mozgus]

You might have issues with sharpies if the quality of the dye in the disc is poor, and heavily transparent, and thats when the ink may throw off the balance of the transparency that the laser is used to, but this probably is just bullshit.

But I suggest you stop buying the one without labels. They're just pure shiny on the label side right? Don't put those in cd booklets, dude. The flaps from the booklets will tear that poor exposed dye layer right the fuck off. I've had dozens of discs get ruined that way. I spent weeks replacing the damage PS1 games. SO GET SOME PROTECTED DISCS! Pay the extra 10%. It's worth it.

Same here -- it's actually safer than labels.
Labels can peel and or be uneven causing the disc to spin improperly.

Paper layers that you affix yourself maybe, but that's not what we're talking about. I mean the normal kind of foggy extra layer of plastic that protects the dye film layer.

[D.D.D.]

You might have issues with sharpies if the quality of the dye in the disc is poor, and heavily transparent, and thats when the ink may throw off the balance of the transparency that the laser is used to, but this probably is just bullshit.

But I suggest you stop buying the one without labels. They're just pure shiny on the label side right? Don't put those in cd booklets, dude. The flaps from the booklets will tear that poor exposed dye layer right the fuck off. I've had dozens of discs get ruined that way. I spent weeks replacing the damage PS1 games. SO GET SOME PROTECTED DISCS! Pay the extra 10%. It's worth it.

Same here -- it's actually safer than labels.
Labels can peel and or be uneven causing the disc to spin improperly.

Paper layers that you affix yourself maybe, but that's not what we're talking about. I mean the normal kind of foggy extra layer of plastic that protects the dye film layer.

Well he is using Taiyo Yuden CDs... Can't get much higher quality than that.

And after I heard about the possibility of a label coming off inside a drive, I vowed I would never use them.

[philipofmacedon]

But I suggest you stop buying the one without labels. They're just pure shiny on the label side right? Don't put those in cd booklets, dude. The flaps from the booklets will tear that poor exposed dye layer right the fuck off. I've had dozens of discs get ruined that way. I spent weeks replacing the damage PS1 games. SO GET SOME PROTECTED DISCS! Pay the extra 10%. It's worth it.

Same here -- it's actually safer than labels.
Labels can peel and or be uneven causing the disc to spin improperly.

Paper layers that you affix yourself maybe, but that's not what we're talking about. I mean the normal kind of foggy extra layer of plastic that protects the dye film layer.

http://www.supermediastore.com/taiyo-yu ... e-box.html

These are what I purchased. They're green on the burnable side and shiny silver on top. It seems like I'm touching plastic on the dye side. Should I be worried?

[Mozgus]

But I suggest you stop buying the one without labels. They're just pure shiny on the label side right? Don't put those in cd booklets, dude. The flaps from the booklets will tear that poor exposed dye layer right the fuck off. I've had dozens of discs get ruined that way. I spent weeks replacing the damage PS1 games. SO GET SOME PROTECTED DISCS! Pay the extra 10%. It's worth it.

Same here -- it's actually safer than labels.
Labels can peel and or be uneven causing the disc to spin improperly.

Paper layers that you affix yourself maybe, but that's not what we're talking about. I mean the normal kind of foggy extra layer of plastic that protects the dye film layer.

http://www.supermediastore.com/taiyo-yu ... e-box.html

These are what I purchased. They're green on the burnable side and shiny silver on top. It seems like I'm touching plastic on the dye side. Should I be worried?

If you leave finger prints on the label side, its not protected. If you don't, it is. That should be a great rule of thumb to use. You want a label side with a slightly rough surface, like that of retail games.

Judging from that link, you're fine. "Thermal Lacquer" as well. And "Printable". All big clues.

[marurun]

Once upon a time you couldn't get CDRs without some kind of protectant or layer over the dye substrate, but as these things get cheaper and cheaper...

Believe it or not, even with a protective layer, the top of your CD is almost always more delicate than the bottom. The bottom layer is decently think and most scratches can be buffed out. If you scratch the top, however, its much more likely the reactive dye layer will be damaged.

[opethfan]

I've got a copy of FFX which won't work anymore. Tiny slither of the top came off near the outer edge.

[Adderall]

I heard some bad things about sharpies so I stopped. I use a Casio thermal printer now. I wasn't too far into the US Dreamcast set, or the PSX set, so I didn't have to redo very many. I had a long thread discussion with Nazo over at UG about it... he seems pretty knowledgeable in that area.

On the other hand, I've never had any problems with any sharpie'd discs, so go figure..