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Twenty percent of hard drives used for long-term music storage in the 90s have failed
(www.tomshardware.com)
this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2024
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Optical discs like CDs and DVDs last a very long time if stored properly. It's using them that kills them fast. So in terms of data archival they're actually pretty good. Regardless, u right, make backups of backups and replace the media its stored on every once in a while.
Most don't last long.
Source: https://www.canada.ca/en/conservation-institute/services/conservation-preservation-publications/canadian-conservation-institute-notes/longevity-recordable-cds-dvds.html
Yeah I work for a place that uses discs for archival in addition to tapes and the discs do have specific requirements for storage, like opaque boxes in a temp and humidity controlled room. The discs are also some fancy Japanese brand I've never heard of. Probably best not to pickup a pack of CD-R at the walmart and use those.
i've had factory printed DVDs die while stored at room temperature in the dark (case). they just developed holes.
Pressed optical disks, yes. Dye-based writable and re-writable do not last very long at all.
Depending on the disc, they can last anywhere from 5 to over 100 years. The over 100 year ones are (were?) marketed as archival, and only CD-R. Do not trust any random writable disc to survive very long.
I tested some backup DVDs from 2012 a couple of months ago and they were completely unreadable.