3 ms·

DVD-R discs with 160+ years lifespan

2 points by urza 14y ago

urza 14y ago
I believe this deserves some attention. This is a company based in Czech Republic (Europe) which manufactures and sells DVD-R discs based on metal-ceramic recording layers for long term data storage and archival use. The product was tested by laboratories in Switzerland and guaranteed lifespan is 160 years. Among other things the disk should withstand (as they claim) 15 minutes in boiling water or putting in a freezer. One disk costs about 3€/4$. They have terribly looking website, but none the less, the product seems very interesting. Notable is that Czech Government uses this technology as part of their backup solution. I discovered it accidently, but I thing it may be interesting in context of recent discussion about backup solutions with regard to Amazon Glacier etc. (I am not affiliated with the company in any way.)
Piskvorrr 14y ago
160 years falls somewhat short of "forever"; as for the claims: how do you test for a 160 year lifespan, and more importantly: how will you read this in 160 years, assuming it is still readable? I have 25-year-old 9" floppy disks, but I have no way to read them - no drives, and even if I scavenged one online, no computers with a compatible interface. Even though it's an impressive claim, unless they can somehow provide a 160-year lifespan drive, I'm less than impressed.
- urza 14y ago
  Seems there is some kind of ECMA testing for this, they had the disk at 80 degrees Celsius and 80 % humidity for equivalent of 160 years at normal conditions. Dont ask me more, this is all there was to it in this article: [czech] http://technet.idnes.cz/cesi-jako-jedini-na-svete-vyrabi-dvd-disky-ktere-vas-dvakrat-preziji-11j-/tec_reportaze.aspx?c=A110502_120308_tec_reportaze_nyv http://technet.idnes.cz/cesi-jako-jedini-na-svete-vyrabi-dvd... You make a good point with the reader problem.
  - Piskvorrr 14y ago
    Moreover, data compatibility gets hard - who can read EBCDIC-encoded data nowadays? Or even a keybcs2-encoded file written in the T602 editor (a format fifteen years old - and already completely obsolete)?

2 points by urza 14y ago

urza 14y ago

I believe this deserves some attention. This is a company based in Czech Republic (Europe) which manufactures and sells DVD-R discs based on metal-ceramic recording layers for long term data storage and archival use. The product was tested by laboratories in Switzerland and guaranteed lifespan is 160 years. Among other things the disk should withstand (as they claim) 15 minutes in boiling water or putting in a freezer. One disk costs about 3€/4$. They have terribly looking website, but none the less, the product seems very interesting. Notable is that Czech Government uses this technology as part of their backup solution. I discovered it accidently, but I thing it may be interesting in context of recent discussion about backup solutions with regard to Amazon Glacier etc. (I am not affiliated with the company in any way.)

Piskvorrr 14y ago

160 years falls somewhat short of "forever"; as for the claims: how do you test for a 160 year lifespan, and more importantly: how will you read this in 160 years, assuming it is still readable? I have 25-year-old 9" floppy disks, but I have no way to read them - no drives, and even if I scavenged one online, no computers with a compatible interface. Even though it's an impressive claim, unless they can somehow provide a 160-year lifespan drive, I'm less than impressed.

urza 14y ago
Seems there is some kind of ECMA testing for this, they had the disk at 80 degrees Celsius and 80 % humidity for equivalent of 160 years at normal conditions. Dont ask me more, this is all there was to it in this article: [czech] http://technet.idnes.cz/cesi-jako-jedini-na-svete-vyrabi-dvd-disky-ktere-vas-dvakrat-preziji-11j-/tec_reportaze.aspx?c=A110502_120308_tec_reportaze_nyv http://technet.idnes.cz/cesi-jako-jedini-na-svete-vyrabi-dvd... You make a good point with the reader problem.
- Piskvorrr 14y ago
  Moreover, data compatibility gets hard - who can read EBCDIC-encoded data nowadays? Or even a keybcs2-encoded file written in the T602 editor (a format fifteen years old - and already completely obsolete)?