CD-Recordable discs fail the test of time.

Have you noticed that some of your CDs that you recorded are difficult to play? Have you been trying to retrieve data off of a CD that you recorded some time ago and you just keep getting errors? Chances are that it isn’t your CDRW machine.

Roughly translated from Dutch:

The tests showed that a number of CD-Rs had become completely unreadable while others could only be read back partially. Data that was recorded 20 months ago had become unreadable. These included discs of well known and lesser known manufacturers.

It is presumed that CD-Rs are good for at least 10 years. Some manufacturers even claim that their CD-Rs will last up to a century. From our tests it’s concluded however that there is a lot of junk on the market. We came across CD-Rs that should never have been released to the market. It’s completely unacceptable that CD-Rs become unusable in less than two years.

The image provided above is a before and after shot of the same CD in different time frames. The CD on the left is how the CD looked when it was freshly recorded. The one on the right is how it looks after nearly 2 years have passed. I know that from my own library of music, I have noticed that some CD are unplayable in about a years time. I always thought that it was from over use and that the players were depositing superficial scratches on the CD surfaces. I guess I was wrong. This test have been done on 30 different brands and the results are all similar.

Source: cdfreaks.com