KVR Audio

Jbravo · Post by **Jbravo** » Wed May 18, 2005 3:48 pm

I would have thought that the media itself would be more reliable written at slower speeds,irrespective of the drive, having more time to recieve the data etc - that's certainly my experience. CDRW's written at high speed tend to be unreadable in several of my machines...

Doogle · Post by **Doogle** » Wed May 18, 2005 4:36 pm

I remember reading something about how the dye (?) used in CDRWs wears out quicker if it doesn't get... sunlight. Does anyone know more details about this, including whether it's a all a big lie or not?
Thing is... you've got to balance it so that you keep the dye happy w/o melting the CD... tsk!

kybernaut · Post by **kybernaut** » Wed May 18, 2005 4:59 pm

Doogle wrote:I remember reading something about how the dye (?) used in CDRWs wears out quicker if it doesn't get... sunlight. Does anyone know more details about this, including whether it's a all a big lie or not?
Thing is... you've got to balance it so that you keep the dye happy w/o melting the CD... tsk!

CDRWs use a metal mix (silver, indium, antimony, tellurium), not a dye. Opposed to CD-Rs, they are not prone to degradation through UV rays.

To answer the question of the original poster: CDRWs only survive a few hundred write cycles before getting erronious. If you use packet writing with a tool like In-CD, these few hundred cycles can be reached pretty quickly. This depends also on the recorder and its firmware. Some of them perform a better packet writing strategy (using the whole space on the CDRW before overwriting a section again...)

@ ResonantOrder: The link you gave is about CD-R. Also a few other comments in this thread (sunlight...) applies more to CD-R than CD-RW.

kybernaut

garret · Post by **garret** » Wed May 18, 2005 5:21 pm

Off topic a bit, since the question was about CDRW's, but worth mentioning:

The best CDRs I know of are Mitsui Mam-A Gold. I wouldn't burn long-term backups to anything else... (certainly not to CDRWS...)

Mam-a discs use a proprietary phythalocyanine dye, which lasts something like 200 years in typical storage conditions.. cheapie cyanine discs will probably last 25 years... maybe less if you leave them out exposed to daylight (uv radiation).

http://www.mam-a.com/

-Garret

ResonantOrder · Post by **ResonantOrder** » Wed May 18, 2005 7:34 pm

I guess I should learn to read...

If your serious about storage, never use a cd-rw.

UltraJv · Post by **UltraJv** » Wed May 18, 2005 7:36 pm

Try using something other than Brillo pads to clean them..

deleted · Post by **deleted** » Mon May 23, 2005 3:53 pm

DELETED

SampleScience · Post by **SampleScience** » Mon May 23, 2005 7:26 pm

Man... I have tapes that are 25 years old & they still work fine. I hope my CDrs will last as long!

I think as long as you take care of your stuff it will last.

Voidoid Surrealist · Post by **Voidoid Surrealist** » Tue May 24, 2005 7:58 am

Well if they do end up all messed up, pop 'em in the microwave for a few seconds...good times...

Do CD-RWs Wear Out?