This is odd question, but here it goes. I had some CDRs in storage for about a year, finally took them out and attempted to burn music on them. I went thru about 15 disc, getting the same "please insert a blank disc" prompt. Do CDRs expire?
If by the way you mean expire meaning that you have exceeded the useable life(time) of the recording media dye, then yes,they expire.
Wait a minute. Are you saying that if a blank disc if not used by a certain time the dye will go bad and not allow any burning later on? Or are you saying both blank and burned discs will expire and become unplayable after a year or two?? I've burned thousands of DVDs and CDRs. Some with video and audio that will be impossible to replace if lost. I've probably been burning music CDs for ten years now, and so far these ten year old discs still play fine. Of course I keep them well cared for by using CD evelopes when they are not in use unlike some other people who just leave them lying around and then they get scratched up. And I've been using name brand CDRs like Fuji (made in Japan) for my improtant stuff. And I do know about those really poorly made blanks that have decade over only a year. but so far my Fuji discs (and some Memorex) have sounded fine. Are you telling me that these Ten year old burned discs, even after being well cared for are going to go bad? Or just the blanks I still have in storage are going to be useless if I don't burn them soon? What about those age tests they post where they excellerate aging to warrenty the discs useful for 100 years?
The recording media has a set lifetime (either storage or after being burned). great media can have a lifetime of up to 300 years(how are we gonna disprove that ?, I am not certain). But it is a certainty that better media is stable longer than cheaper media. So, if you have something important, use good media as Taiyo Yuden brand. PS storage in high temps and humidity is not advised.
I just tried burning a cmc cd-r I found unused from about 6 years ago... fail as burner couldn't perform the optimal burn test. They do have a shelf life. Disks from the same batch that were burned at the time still work ok, so it's likely that the ink deteriorates unless it is fixed by burning within a certain time. BTW.. the disk was in the bottom of a box totally in the dark still on it's spool.
A general rule of thumb is a shelf life of 7 years for unrecorded discs, although I have recorded and tested discs that are 8 years old without a problem. There is a shelf life for unrecorded dyes, but it is not clear how long that actually is. The picture is much clearer for recorded discs. Discs recorded on the most stable phthalocyanine dye and put through stringent environmental tests ought to last 125 years with a 95% assurance ratio. (That is, 95% of all the discs tested exceeded the 125-year figure.) Claims of 300 years are based on tests using only one stress level, not the double stress level specified today. Those tests also do not take into account the oxidation of polycarbonate over time, a test that is not part of the stress testing. As for Taiyo Yuden discs, their dye is cyanine. Their own test certifications indicate a shorter life for their CD-Rs than for their DVD discs. The European test certification suggests 35 years. So if one is truly interested in saving data to optical disc--and assured that a CD player will be available years after his or her death--stick with phthalocyanine dye-based discs.
I suppose if your data is really valuable you should write it on vellum using vegetable dyes. !000+ years proven life, and I assume people will still have the use of eyes then, even if the language has changed beyond recognition.
The longest lasting media are rock inscriptions followed by paint on rock, stamped metal, paint on pottery, writing on papyrus, mosaic tiles, paint on parchment, writing on parchment, and then paper. All are analogue media with very limited capacity. Wax cylinders, shellac records, magnetic tape, and vinyl records followed as sound recording materials, all analogue. Digital data were first stored on punch cards, then magnetic tape, followed by magnetic platters. Non-contact magnetic storage (hard drive platters) are likely to be the best storage media for some time to come. Almost every brand except Taiyo Yuden or discs supplied by Taiyo Yuden use phthalocyanine dye. Verbatim used azo-cyanine dye for a longer period, but their production moved to CMC's phthalocyanine dye a few years back. Another advantage of phthalocyanine is its short write strategy that is better suited to high-speed recording than cyanine or azo-cyanine dyes. So there are four distinct advantages for this dye: 1) better resistance to light and heat; 2) greater suitability for high-speed recording; 3) more suppliers; and 4) lower costs.
