Safety of using sharpies on CD-Rs without labels

[marurun]

It may be that the chemicals in Sharpie ink can slowly do damage and deteriorate that upper layer, but I really think that physical death of the disc due to mishandling or some other problem are more likely to strike first. CDs aren't as durable these days as the industry tried to tell us years ago and there are, to date, no formal archival standards for CDs (or for any digital media or formats, for that matter).

[executioner]

I use a regular cheap $1 "pentel cd-r/dvd-r marker" never had issues.

[ImportBoy]

I've use a regular black sharpie for most backups unless I'm printing a cover/label. I use Memorex CD-Rs, and never have had a problem.

Even if the the discs go bad in the future its not that big a deal to me - they are backups - meant to take the bullet for the real ones