For those backing up photos on CDs

Working in a software company, I had heard the lifespan was max 7 years. I realize most of you probably aren't aware of it & may back up your photos on CDs.

I have mine on my external harddrive & backed up by uploading to an online photo gallery.

See below for info
Source :
Computerworld has interviewed Kurt Gerecke, an IBM storage expert and physicist who claims burned CDs only have a two to five-year lifespan, depending on the quality of the CD. From the article: "The problem is material degradation. Optical discs commonly used for burning, such as CD-R and CD-RW, have a recording surface consisting of a layer of dye that can be modified by heat to store data. The degradation process can result in the data 'shifting' on the surface and thus becoming unreadable to the laser beam." Gerecke recommends magnetic tapes to store pictures, videos and songs."

Re: For those backing up photos on CDs

Definitely great info! We just got an external HD for all our pictures and my DH is getting rid of all our music Cds too and just uploading them to the HD

Re: For those backing up photos on CDs

so what does this mean for wedding videos on dvd's? is this something completely different?

Re: For those backing up photos on CDs

I put mine on an external hard drive too, a Maxtor 200gb.
I actually never got started with the cd's though I think I may as my third line of defense

Message edited 1/12/2006 8:50:54 PM.

Re: For those backing up photos on CDs

I jsut read this. I was like because all my digital photos are on CD (with some on the internet sharing sites as well). I will look into getting an external HD to save them too now.

Re: For those backing up photos on CDs

We do have them backedup on a seperate HD as well as CD's. It's great you posted to let people know.