DVD+R lifespan

[Teemumicah]

How long will DVDrs last? I store mine in protective sleeve and I never touch the surfaces. I've been hearing all kinds of disturbing things about them lasting only a year or 2. If that's true it's not even worth the trouble, but I'm hoping it's all bs. Oh yeah, I use RICOH +Rs.

[Craig Tucker]

The answer is no-one really knows for sure.

A good example of this is the first commercial CD's which were produced and supposed to be almost indestructible and last for ever, turns out are now suffering from CD rot and a lot of the first wave of audio cd's are now unplayable.

People can make predictions but only time will tell.

[RottenFoxBreath]

yeh ive got a shakespeares sister cd that i bought in about 1989,and it wont play now,seems to be almost rusty inside,with these weird rings and spots.
its not warped,or misshaped,but just almost like somethings attacked it,like bacteria in a petri dish.

and dont even ask about my bulkpaq tango 4speed dvd-rs.
most of them are unplayable,and irretrievable data,is the order of the day.
my verbatim/taiyo yuden(limited to about 35dvd-rs,ritek,and ricoh discs are still ok.

[hastey]

Yeah unfortunately its something only time can tell, seeing as though this media is still in its infancy.

[gmatov]

Don't listen to them Cassandras. The media companies have sworn they will last hunnerds and hunnerds of years.

I am not worried at all. Especially since I have multiple copies of more or less irreplaceable files stored on several partitions on my 11 hard drives,. internal and external.

A really big crash, with multiple HDD failure and I might pull my hair out, but not any little thing.

Do you get the drift that I do not trust the media makers? When they tell you the burnt disk will last 100 years, but a blank has a 7 year shelf life, I tend to take anything they say with a grain of salt.

Cheers,

George