Data preservation on CDs & DVDs

["Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@aeiveos.com>]

A while back there was some discussion of data preservation on
CDs and DVDs.  Interestingly NIST has now published some
comparisons between various CD-R media types [1].  There is
a lot of more practical discussion (as well many useless
comments) in [2].

Bottom line is that one wants to buy the Gold/Silver CD-Rs
using phthalocyanine dye.  The technology was apparently developed
by Mitsui and licensed to Kodak.  They are more expensive so one
tends not to find them in stores but instead one has to look for
them online (look for Mitsui, MAM-A or Kodak and verify the media
type).

A couple of sources I found are [3,4].

Unfortunately it seems there is currently little data on DVDs.  Though
the article did make the point that you should keep any disks out of
extended exposure to sunlight.  For those who don't know the photon
energy in the higher frequency end of the UV spectrum (UV-B & UV-C)
is sufficient to break most chemical bonds (so it will damage the
organic dyes that most CD-Rs and DVDs use).

Robert

1. http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/gipwg/StabilityStudy.pdf
2. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/05/0024258
3. http://www.edisconline.com/
4. http://www.inkjetart.com/mitsui/