Am I just lucky?

[lordofduct]

of course cases would extend the life... but the glues and dye used in the recordable media degrades rather quickly. Ever since a few years ago I've stuck with Taiyo-Yuden disks for their low price and long life span... I've gotten a couple years of quality out of them... some of my first burns on them I still have, of course degraded, but not as bad as so many other brands I've used (i.e. Memorex... ugh).

Long life data storage is a difficult thing to adequately fullfil. Even HDDs have their limitations due to the fact they can crash, and tapes are slow and expensive. You take your ups and downs with it.

Storing data on DVDs properly stored in clean environments will last you several years, but I'd recopy them every year or so just in case. As well I'd make 2 copies of each disk, one for use and the other for safe keeping... maybe three for security if the data is that important. I myself went with 3 500GB drives set in a RAID5 giving me 1 terrabyte of storage... expensive, but great for quick access and if a drive drops on me I just replace it.

Weigh out your options... DVD-Rs may be your cheapest and most effective route. I'm not saying it is an awful choice... there is certainly better, but there is also a LOT worse. Just take care of your records if they mean that much to you.



and yeah the lighting in my room is crap (I like it dark... used to work graveyard for 6 years) so my monitor seems very bright... especially with a white page like GOOGLE being displayed like in that image.