On Mon, 2009-08-24 at 17:05 +0100, Adam Bower wrote:
I've got mp3 CD's in the car that were burnt at the same time as I got the mp3 player which was September 2003, the discs still play fine (apart from one that got scratched). Burning at a slower speed with decent media does make a big difference. If your car CD player doesn't like them then it's probably more down to the CD player laser not liking the discs I'd suggest a different media and burning at single speed.
Certainly the CD player is a factor in that writable CDs that have reached the point where they won't play in the CD player in the dashboard will play in the CD multichanger in the boot and the temperature of the dashboard CD player also seems to make a difference independent of the temperature of the disk. That said the dashboard CD player always plays the stamped disks regardless of how hot it is.
I was not saying that with care CD backups couldn't last well, i.e. if the media are good and are kept well and the equipment used is in good condition but talking about whether the media are first rate or whether the equipment is is top condition takes me back to the days of the 5.25" floppy disk when such considerations seemed to be common and unreadable disks common enough to be a fear.
My impression is that hard disks are much more reliable than any removable media I have ever used with the possible exception of SSD memory sticks for which I have not had enough use to comment.
The hazard with hard disks is that having such high capacity, on the rare occasions they do fail the effect is so much more significant which, of course, is why you want a backup copy in the first place.
Regards, Steve.