Stability Comparison of Recordable Optical Discs – A Study of Error Rates in Harsh Conditions is a study done by the Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The reliability and longevity of any
storage medium is a key issue for
archivists and preservationists as well as
for the creators of important information.
This is particularly true in the case of
digital media such as DVD and CD where
a sufficient number of errors may render
the disc unreadable. This paper describes
an initial stability study of commercially
available recordable DVD and CD
media using accelerated aging tests under
conditions of increased temperature
and humidity. The effect of prolonged
exposure to direct light is also investigated
and shown to have an effect on the error
rates of the media. Initial results show that
high quality optical media have very stable
characteristics and may be suitable for
long-term storage applications. However,
results also indicate that significant
differences exist in the stability of
recordable optical media from different
manufacturers.
Here’s The PDF and a Slashdot Thread.
Optical media longevity
Nicholson Baker scoffs at accelerated aging tests for paper in _Double Fold_, and although I’m not a material scientist of any kind, I’m skeptical of the accelerated aging tests performed on optical media, too.
It’s true that CDs and DVDs haven’t been around long enough for there to be any real-time tests of how they survive over the span of 50 years, for instance–but we hardly need those tests, artificial or rigorously realtime. Anyone who owns CDs or DVDs can tell you that they seem less than ideal for long-term storage. Commercially produced audio CDs seem to be ok if you take reasonable care of them, but data CDs seem to get corrupt pretty easily, as do DVDs.
Magnetic media are bad, too, though.