I love physical media, you love physical media. Physical carriers are amazing and, as a rule, just better than digital streaming or loading, if a little less convenient.
HoweverBeing physical elements, and not digital files, backup for numerous computers in the data center, the physical medium has a unique drawback of degradation. While compact -disinfects and DVDs are not as fragile as Vinyl records Or cassettes, if you do not care about them (or even sometimes, when you do it!), They can go to their end when we speak.
The illusion of constancy
Everything is relatively, and compared to vinyl records and cassette ribbons, compact -disks many More durable. I remember the demonstrations from the first days when someone drilled a 2 -mm hole through a compact -red, and this will still play. Of course, it was a little cunning, since the CD would still miss, but these discs were sold as hard and long-lived.
Theoretically, they are completely long -lived. The CD-CD enterprise (not the return on the recording) should last longer than the average life expectancy of a person, suggesting that it is stored in ideal conditions. Nevertheless, we do not live in ideal conditions, so you cannot assume that your compact -disks will simply be over the next 100 years without any contribution from you!
How optical discs actually store data
To understand where the weaknesses in these optical discs lie, we need to do a second and explain how they work. Each disk consists of layers: a pure polycarbonate substrate, a thin reflecting layer (usually aluminum or gold) and a protective varnish coating. Data is stored as a series of microscopic “pits” and “lands”, which the laser reads, measuring how light reflects these surfaces. Pits and land represent a binary code.
Recorded discs change the metal layer to a special dye, which changes the condition using heat from the laser. These discs can last many years, but dispose of less stable than the disks with the plant.
The Silent Killers: Disc Rot and Degradation
The biggest cause of disk errors is scratches. If the outer layer is scratched, this may prevent the laser from reading the data in the metal layer. Special instruments for polishing the disk can sometimes remove these scratches, but there are as many surfaces that you can remove before destroying the compact disintea or DVD. If the scratch is deep enough to get into the metal layer where the data really lives, these data are destroyed.
However, even if you keep your discs completely without scratches, there are other diseases that can affect them. Disc decay This is the one that you are likely to hear. This happens when the metal layer of the disk is slowly oxidized, which makes the surface an unreadable laser. This should not happen because the disk is sealed in plastic and varnish. Nevertheless, damage to the disk, such as the chopped edges, can expose the metal layer to the outer atmosphere. In some cases, this may be due to the defect in the production process, but the problem will become obvious only after years.
Plastic layers can also be sent or overshadowed when glue adhesive. The heat, humidity and exposure of ultraviolet radiation accelerate the process. The recorded discs have A different problem where the dye simply degrades with ageIt can disappear by the field, move the color or react chemically with the binding agents holding the disk together.
How long does they really last?
It is difficult for many reasons to predict how long the physical media will last. Firstly, in fact, there was not enough time to find out whether a disk that claims to be 100 or even a 1000-year life corresponds. It is convenient that everyone who participates in this statement will push chamomiles by the time of expiration of the validity period.
What we can observe is that life expectancy varies from disk to the disk, and therefore there are discs that are absolutely good after more than 40 years, and some that have died in less than 10. Anecdomously, many of the companies of my parents from the 90s and late 80s are still in order, and the disk sketches were largely before the accident or poor circulation. I burned hundreds, if not thousands, from the record that can be recorded, and DVDs in my life, and assuming that they survived in the first few months, they were all thrown away because I no longer needed them, and not because they failed.
High heat and humidity are the main killers mainly of all physical mass media, therefore, if you process your discs correctly and Store them in a cool, dry placeMost likely, they will survive your need for them if they do not worry.
Preservation of your data until it became too late
Nevertheless, in reality, I think you should check your discs for the presence of signs of oxidation or discoloration, at least once a year. Good news is that, unlike vinyl records and cassettes, it is simple and convenient to back up your optical media with zero quality loss. Nowadays, the storage of the hard drive is cheap, and, for example, investing, for example, a large external disk, will allow you to make backup copies of your discs in case anything goes wrong with them. If you use backups to consume your content, it also reduces the wear of your physical media, so this is a win -win option in my book.
While I am considering CD, Blu-Ray DVD and discs the smallest vulnerable to physical media, which does not make them invulnerableAnd this is not a huge task to check their time from time to time to make sure that your collection remains reproduced.
- Storage capacity
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2 TB
- Compatible devices
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USB
- Brand
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Varnishes
