Here comes the terabyte hard drive

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DVD-Rs are NOT reliable over the long term!

DVD-R (and CD-R) dyes fade over time when exposed to light. The read laser in a player degrades them a little each time the data is read, and ordinary office fluorescent lighting (let alone sunlight or daytime skylight from windows or, well, skylights) can also degrade them. Also, certain fungi feed on the organic dyes, and are quite a problem in wetter climates. The dyes also degrade slowly over time even in total darkness, due to thermal entropic degradation.

Dual-layer DVD-R is especially vulnerable, as the second layer is of necessity transparent and so of lesser reflectivity, and thus less degradation is needed to render it unusable.

CD-Rs at least have the option of better, longer-lasting dyes for archival disks, but their capacity is nowhere near enough to be useful for backing up these hard drives.

Posted by: Joel R   Posted on: 01/05/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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