(+) Why Your CDs and DVDs Are Dying

Do you think your family photographs, home videos, and digital images of your genealogy documents are safe because you stored them on CD or DVD disks? Think again.

Do your disks have problems? If they do not yet have the problems, will they develop similar problems in the near future? Many CD and DVD disks are going to suffer similar fates.

The life expectancy of all CD and DVD disks depends upon the processes that created the disks and recorded the information on them. Commercially-produced CD and DVD disks have the data already recorded on them at the time of manufacture. The data is sealed into the disk as part of the manufacturing process. Labels are printed directly onto the plastic surface. The experts disagree a bit over the exact life expectancy, but most agree that commercially-manufactured disks will last 25 years to perhaps 100 years or maybe even longer with no signal change or degradation IF PROPERLY STORED.