DVD's that split?

[videobread]

I always take a can opener and punch a DVD before I throw it out. Now the split in half! Is this new or something I have just not noticed before? Is it any big deal?

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[orsetto]

I've seen it occasionally. I got a really big scare last year when I bought 600 TY premium discs, and the first spindle I opened had the first dozen or so discs come apart like that as I was lifting them off the spindle . That unnerved me until I checked every single remaining disc in the carton (they were fine). Its probably a random phenomenon.

[jman98]

I always take a can opener and punch a DVD before I throw it out.

So exactly how paranoid are you? You could just cut them in half with scissors if you're really afraid of getting in trouble over what you throw out.

[branch]

I always take a can opener and punch a DVD before I throw it out.

So exactly how paranoid are you? You could just cut them in half with scissors if you're really afraid of getting in trouble over what you throw out.

Have you tried cutting a DVD - bloody hurts the fingers *g*

[lordsmurf]

I run mine over with a lawnmower.





... okay, not really... :P

[guns1inger]

Food processor ?

Wait until you have a couple of hundred, glue them together, then put them on a lathe and whittle them down to plastic shavings (and an interesting table leg) ?

I usually just zigzag scratch them around the write surface so they are unreadable.

[mazinz]

my paper shredder eats dvds

[videobread]

Orsetto - Yes, these are TYG02 white Hub printable. My concern is, with such a questionable glue job, that maybe the DVD's will start to separate and go bad over time or when exposed to heat or cold. I have since checked out other brands of DVD's and found that when chomped on with a can opener they don't split in two. This glue job seems brittle, bad glue formula, or maybe just not enough glue. Maybe it's nothing, but I have moved exclusively to Verbatim. Better safe than sorry for me.

[hech54]

Another reason for staying away from printables.

[orsetto]

videobread, your concern is understandable but I think you're overreacting. Your discs did not split until you took the extreme measure of trying to destroy them with a can opener: thats a little unfair. Any disc could break apart weirdly under such stress. In normal use, a TY disc is going to last pretty much forever. When I had that spindle with a few split discs, as a test I recorded on three of the intact discs further down the spindle, and have left them on a sunny windowsill for the past 16 months. In that time, the temperature on the sill has varied from 20 degrees in winter to 97 degrees in summer, plus changes in humidity. All three discs still work fine, with no evidence of glue or dye deterioration. One of the discs is unfinalized, so every couple months I try to add a ten-minute clip to it, and it still works. Libraries around the world rely on TY for archiving, and they have always worked perfectly for me (not a single coaster- ever- in over 1400 TY 8x I've burned), so I really have no worries about them. You shouldn't either.

As far as destroying them goes, I find TYs pretty difficult to wreck! On the rare occasions I'm paranoid about data, I put the disc halfway into a vise and then crack it in half (semicircles) with a hammer blow. The TYs take two or three blows before they break, my Verbs snap in half with one strike. Cleaning up all the silver foil confetti that flies off is a pain, though: I should get a heavy duty shredder.

[videobread]

Orsetto: Thanks. Your testing is comforting. Just put some DVD's in the window and will try the vise test at some point. I've been using TY and Ver for years. I have not bought any second tier/off brand stuff or value line since the bad Ritek days.

The can opener thing is not about being paranoid. It's more habit. I had a few hundred VHS proprietary tapes that I smashed one at a time a few years ago. The reason was that I did not want then showing up on ebay. That's why I crimp DVD's with the can opener.

[jman98]

I always take a can opener and punch a DVD before I throw it out.

So exactly how paranoid are you? You could just cut them in half with scissors if you're really afraid of getting in trouble over what you throw out.

Have you tried cutting a DVD - bloody hurts the fingers *g*

I have done that - once or twice. It's not that bad. Only once did I actually have a valid reason for destroying a disc. Long story short - it contained some data that could not be released and there was no need for that disc any more so I cut it up with scissors.

Another idea and possibly more fun is to put them dye side up in a microwave and turn it on for a few seconds. It makes an interesting display. I have no idea what the long term effects are on the microwave but my brother has done this a few times just for the heck of it and his microwave still works fine.

[orsetto]

Its pretty funny that we all agonize over the vagaries of dyes and burn quality tests and whatnot, because we're so worried about our data surviving for a long time, but when you actually want to destroy the data write-once optical discs are so hard to kill! Kinda makes me miss floppies and zip discs a little bit: at least those you could just erase.

[lordsmurf]

Part of my personal testing in years past involved a rather hard driveway, various coasters, a broom, and a half hour or more of free time. Trust me, discs don't break apart that easily.

[negritude]

One word: microwave.

[Bjs]

One hand, bending in the right direction and they shatter into a 100 pieces into the bin ... not going to recover anything after that

Number of discs shattered ... 800+ and counting ... now that hard drive storage is cheap

Some discs have a protective layer which peels off if you twist them enough

[AlanHK]

I've found a way to make DVDs unreadable quickly, by accident: hold near the hub with thumb and forefinger and flex it a few times. Cracks will start out from the hub and once they get to the (formerly) readable part of the disc, the table of contents is gone and it's not readable by any normal method. No doubt the NSA could if they wanted to. But they already have bugs in your keyboard.

Add a couple of scratches across the face if you feel like it.