This is something that has me worried for some time now. I've read somewhere that the life expectancy of a burned CD-R is somewhere between 5 and 10 years, after which due to chemical processes the data carrying layer of the disc corrodes and quality or data loss occurs.
It's hard to find information about the life expectancy of commercially pressed compact discs and how it differs from CD-R. As a CD album collector I am of course worried about loss of functionality of my collected records and am considering to make lossless backups, though hard drives tend to be fragile and prone to data loss as well. There doesn't seem to be a more or less permanent solution right now that doesn't involve periodical data migration.
CDs are a relatively young medium, so naturally the problem hasn't manifested itself to the majority of consumers, including me. This board is full of record collectors though so I'd like to know if anyone of you experienced data loss on their compact disks or has knowledge about if and how the different processes of pressing and burning result in differences in durability. This isn't supposed to be limited to CDs though, any experience with other record media like vinyl or tapes is appreciated as well. Also: Do you make backups and if yes, how do you go about it? Are there any prospects of digital storage media with indefinite durability being availiable (/affordable?) any time soon?
