What do you think are the best CDR's? According to my latest information, it really doesn't matter unless you plan on archiving them for historical purposes. The life of an average CDR is 3-10 years if you don't scratch off the reflective coating or expose it to strong light (i.e. the sun.)

Most of the daya recorded on CDRs will be obselete in 6 months so the relatively short life is no problem. (BTW floppy disks are probably only good for about 1 year. I don't have definitive data on ZIP or other removable media, but its probably maxed out at about 10 years.) On the other hand, if you want to keep the data on the CD practicaly forever your best bet is to duplicate it every 1-2 years onto the newest storage media. That way the device to read it won't be obselete and you can ensure your data is safe.

Good old fashioned acid-free paper beats all other storage media with a life of over 1000 years.

So I say the best media is the media that works in your CDR drive and the CD drives you plan on reading it on. This varies greatly even among the same model drives. Your best plan is to test different brands and stick with one that works. If you are lucky, they won't change the formula. Most CDR brands are made in whatever factory had excess capacity that week, then slapped into a branded box. Companies that make their own CDRs last time i heard were: TDK, Kodak, Mitsui (makes Yamaha brand and other name brand CDRs).

If anyone remembers the name of the program that can identify the brand name of a CDR please email me!

Please enter your experiences so the whole world will know the answer to this age-old question: Which CDR media is the best?

-- Dave Bauer (dave@kineticmm.com), May 15, 2000