From: Dennis Moser (aldus@angrek.com)
Date: 10/19/03-02:08:50 PM Z
>Do any of you use gold or platinum CD-R or -RW CDs for long term storage of
>digital images? If yes, I would appreciate your comments about
>brands and sources.
>
>I have been using inexpensive CD-R (Memorex, TDK, or Fujifilm) - are
>they just plastic? - but want to store files of some scanned slides
>on a more archival medium.
>
>
>Thanks! JT
>
>
>J. Rowe Taylor
>jrtaylorphoto@aol.com
It isn't that the inexpensive CD blanks use plastic...Glass CDs are
incredinly expensive, so virtually all of the disks are plastic now..all
of the CDs use some kind of metallic compound to create the reflective
layer...and the problem is what is used to create the reflective layer.
Some of the "silver"-colored CDs use aluminum which, over time and MUCH
faster than actual metallic gold, oxidizes. It is this oxidation due to
atmospheric exposure that is often the cause of long-term storage
problems.
Mitsui USED to make a metallic-gold based blank CD; it was marketed by
Kodak. JVC also used to market them, but I don't think JVC is marketing
them anymore. The Sony "silver" is a non-aluminum compound (or so it was,
the LAST time I went through this agony!)
It isn't an encouraging situation. The best approach would be to burn two
copies, store one in the a freezer (yup! just like you'd do for those
precious Ektachromes!) and use the other one as your "working" copy. In
about 8 years, you should bring the other one out of cold-storage, make a
copy and return it to cold-storage.
It is, what we call in the "biz", a data migration plan.
Dennis Moser, who in his day job is VERY much involved in the long-term
stability of digital information...the "real" archives think in terms of
hundreds of years!
-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time" --John Stuart Mill (1806-73) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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