The April 2006 edition of Popular Mechanics cites an expert at IBM Germany warning that burned CD-R discs have a life span of only two to five years. While unburned discs will last as long as 10 years, burning apparently activates a heat-sensitive dye that quickly degrades. ‘Old school’ magnetic tapes remain the best digitial storage medium with an estimated life of 30 to 100 years.
So if you’re used to backing up your essential data to CD-R consider moving the files you’d like to keep for the long term – important documents, video and photos for instance – to a safer medium or investigate using one of the many remote backup services available.
