The Independent newspaper yesterday published a very interesting article about the longevity of CD-Rs, or rather the lack of it.

“But an investigation by a Dutch personal computer magazine, PC Active, has shown that some CD-Rs are unreadable in as little as two years, because the dyes in the CD’s recording layer fade. These dyes replace the aluminium “pits” of a music CD or CD-Rom, and the laser uses that layer to distinguish 0s from 1s. When the CD is written, the writing laser “burns” the dye, which becomes dark, to represent a “1” while a “0” will be left blank so that if the dye fades, there’s no difference; it’s just a long string of nothing to the playback laser.”

So are DVD’s, which I’ve recently started using, a better alternative? Apparently not…

“Recordable DVDs are not off the hook either. The “dye chemicals” in write-once DVDs are similar to CD-R, though recording density and disk construction differ. “We’re in the process of testing DVDs and we’re sure that the same problems will occur,” said Horlings, who plans to publish his findings soon.”

So how do you currently archive your treasured photo collection? Cd-Rs? DVDs? Hard drives? Good old reliable film? Sounds like a great topic for the PhotographyBLOG Poll :-)

Website: The Independent - Ever decreasing circles