Burning Questions: When Good Discs Go Bad
Ever wonder what makes a disc bad? Here's why they vary in quality, and why you should worry about the discs you've entrusted with your data.
Ever wonder what makes a disc bad? Here's why they vary in quality, and why you should worry about the discs you've entrusted with your data.
Melissa J. Perenson, PC World
Tuesday, June 15, 2004 01:00 AM PDT
Tuesday, June 15, 2004 01:00 AM PDT
Chances are, you have a stack of CD and DVD coasters sitting somewhere as testament to both substandard media purchases and your kids' ability to scratch up everything in sight. The hard fact is that recordable media quality varies widely, depending on both the type of dye used on the disc, and the manufacturer's standards.
So the National Institute of Standards did some tests, and found the following, according to PC World "If a disc isn't properly manufactured, the consequences can be dire. At best, the disc will fail immediately during the burn process; this is a best-case scenario because then you know from the start that the disc is faulty. At worst, you may get an abundance of errors during the burn process. These errors won't interrupt the burning process, but.... Down the road, such invisible-to-the-eye errors can reduce the effectiveness of a DVD's built-in error correction so that if some other issue develops on your disc, such as a scratch, you could end up with an unreadable disc when you go back to it months or years later."
Read the article, including the "Myth of Rot"
