Pat Says...

I've always regarded claims of CD-R lifetimes with skepticism. 75 years? Yeah, right. Maybe plain old CDs can do that, maybe, but CD-R? Its recording layer is chemicals, and why should anybody think that a chemical designed to be changeable isn't going to change or degrade over time?

Nonetheless, I drank the kool-aid. I put important files--my photos--on CD-R. I did make multiple copies just in case, and I gave one set to a buddy for safekeeping in case the house burned down. I put one-of-a-kind recordings onto CD-R. All because PC hard drives back in 2000 were miniscule in comparison to the half terabyte drives I can pick up off the computer store shelves today. Basically, archival stuff.

A few months ago, I decided that my PC had plenty of space and I could restore all my photos to hard drive so I could enjoy them. Enjoy was the antithesis of what happened next.

Windows XP couldn't find a disk. Hmm, there goes volume 1. How about volume 2? 3? 4? What about the duplicate copies I made? No go? What about the copies I gave my friend? I'm sure he's still got them, but he's moved and I don't think he could get his hands on them easily as much as I know he'd like to, so I haven't asked. I'm not optimistic anyway, and that's the real reason I haven't asked.

I tried reading the old CD-R discs in a couple of CD-ROM drives. No go. It was disheartening to read the CD-R vendor's name, "Nashua" in discolored emulsion when looking at the recording surface. I called Nashua, and they had no suggestions.

Finally I tried my laptop running Linux. Success? Maybe. I think I was able to get about 25% of the photos back undamaged, and portions of another 10%. The balance of the photos remains unreadable. Unfortunately I don't have any friends in the NSA who could scrape the remaining bits off, but even if they did, they probably wouldn't be able to give them back to me!

I'm slowly getting my CD-R collection onto hard drives. Those half terabyte drives are great, and they can hold more than all the CD-Rs I'd want to keep. If you're archiving on optical media, I'd suggest you think about doing the same.