V.V.V.V.V.
Houses Ov Mercury
That is true, yeah. I wouldn't be paranoid about it really. In 5-10 years you could just buy or download the CD again. I'm not worried about my CD collection being obsolete.
How do you back up your music and How often do you buy music
- Thread starter WINTER TYRANT
- Start date
seedofvengeance
Boosh!
Ya it will trust me... In cool and dry conditions and if they are stored upright not lying down they will last for quite a while(5-10) at least but i just do it to make sure. damn...every monday, i wish i could do that. I try for at least 4 a month but when they are coming from other countries...well you know how that can be
I shouldn't, but I sacrifice food on the weekends to buy one every Monday and go to an obscene amount of concerts. I only eat twice a weekend, unless it's free... and that frees up the necessary money. I also have a pretty damn good job.
- Jan 24, 2008
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For most of my stuff that I could buy in the stores or online i dont worry too much but when it comes to my more rare discs i make sure to back them up especially demos and e.p's. When i started with my first Archival Golds I copied my fav bands cd's first aka Winter of Sin and then I started with my harder to find stuff
V.V.V.V.V.
Houses Ov Mercury
Understood, then. How much are the archival CDs you use? They seem like they'd be expensive. But if this is how you feel, I don't see how I could argue with you!
BlackMetalWhiteGuy
Manly Man!
I have around 250 or 300 CDs and I've put them all on my computer. The rest of my collection is downloaded and a fairly large portion of it is in a que folder still awaiting its first listen. I have a 500 GB external harddrive that I got for Christmas in 2006, but I still haven't opened it yet, so if anything happens to my computer I'm screwed.
MasterOLightning
Optimator
Eh, if my cds ever crap out, there's always that ANUS board with all of the FLACs for download. I usually just copy cds to a 100 GB HD I have, so they usually don't leave the case more than once, and my car doesn't have a cd player, so I don't need to bring them with me.
Tape decks seemed really obsolete for a time, but now they're quite handy since you can get an adapter with a headphone jack for about $10-15 and just plug an mp3 player into it. Eliminates the risk of carrying cds, and also cd theft.
Tape decks seemed really obsolete for a time, but now they're quite handy since you can get an adapter with a headphone jack for about $10-15 and just plug an mp3 player into it. Eliminates the risk of carrying cds, and also cd theft.
I have my music library hard-copied on my Ipod, just in case my computer dies. That way, I can just go into Windows Explorer, and do a simple copy/paste. And tada, my library is fine.
I only have about 40-50 CDs, since the only music store even remotely close to where I live, only carries the most mainstream shit possible. And I refuse to buy online. A lot more of my music is downloaded, to be honest.
I only have about 40-50 CDs, since the only music store even remotely close to where I live, only carries the most mainstream shit possible. And I refuse to buy online. A lot more of my music is downloaded, to be honest.
Dead Children Speak No Lies
Westie Headbanger
- Nov 15, 2007
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The oldest CD i have is 15 years old and is still fine. I have numerous cd's over 10 years old which are also fine. I think it's how the CD 's are treated which makes the greatest difference to their lifespan.
Anyway back to question. I have about 1100?? CD's. Most are backed up on my computer in a high quality format.
I buy anywhere from 8 to 30 CD's a month (yesterday i received 16 CD's i had bought, another 5 on Tuesday). I basically send myself broke from buying CD's. Now that's TR00 METAL.
Vilden
From the holy kingdom of Harmonia
2-5 years lifespan on a CD, wth? I have cds 10+ years old and nothing wrong with them.
I don't backup, I buy 99% of my music and then rip to my computer. The original copy is enough backup for me.
I don't backup, I buy 99% of my music and then rip to my computer. The original copy is enough backup for me.
Psychonaut
God Of Emptiness
^^ Same here. Buy them and I'm happy. Where I keep them is pretty much the same temperature year round with a dehumidifier for the humid summer months. I have a lot of CDs over 10 years old and nothing wrong at all.
Zephyrus
Tyrants and Slaves
The Ozzman
Melted by feels
The Ozzman
Melted by feels
But it can still result in mp3 player theft, which would cost more money in the long run than just keeping a few CDs in the car at a time.
Usually, I don't keep more than 8 CDs in the car at a time. I have more than that because of CD-Rs, but I'm not going to be sad if I lose those. Considering the fact that I don't make long trips anywhere really, I hardly use the MP3 player in the car. I just carry a few CDs at a time and switch them out when I want something different.
On topic: I have two external hard drives. One of them is acting as a backup right now since the other still works, but it will become my primary drive when the other dies (obviously). That's where I keep all my music.
Ben_t
Member
2-5 years life expectancy. That sounds a little ridiculous. Maybe that's for the cheap discs you can buy to burn stuff yourself...
I have a LOT of cds and I bet at least 80% are at least 5 years old. And the only problem I ever had with a cd was this one time where I dropped it and somebody stepped on it before I could pick it up. For some reason it wasn't playing well after.
So really, if you take care of your stuff I can't really see making 2 back ups of everything being really productive. Seems like a lot of money for maybe preventing something that is not very likely to happen.
I have a LOT of cds and I bet at least 80% are at least 5 years old. And the only problem I ever had with a cd was this one time where I dropped it and somebody stepped on it before I could pick it up. For some reason it wasn't playing well after.
So really, if you take care of your stuff I can't really see making 2 back ups of everything being really productive. Seems like a lot of money for maybe preventing something that is not very likely to happen.
The Ozzman
Melted by feels
Well, one of my XHDs is over 2 years old, so it is bound to die eventually and it is a bitch to back everything up again, so I bought another one to save some time doing it. I might retire the old one here soon.
You seem to have confused CD-R/DVD-R technology with factory pressed CDs/DVDs here though. The source you are quoting there is talking about using CD/DVD as archival/backup media meaning they are talking about writable CD/DVD media. Which is fundamentally different from the CDs and DVDs you buy when you buy an album or a film at the store.
Writable optical media (CD-R/DVD-R) will indeed only last a couple of years at most because the chemical dyes used in CD-R media degrade quickly. Though how quickly depends a lot on the quality of the media (which is why buying cheap CD-Rs is generally a complete waste of money) and how you store them (keeping them away from lightsources will increase their lifespan dramatically). I definitely wouldn't trust a CD-R to remain intact for more than 2 years (meaning I would never store anything I definitely wouldn't want to lose on CD-R without redoing my backup on a yearly basis) but I've had some CD-Rs last up to 4-5 years or so.
For factory pressed CDs it really isn't anywhere near that dire at all. CDs can easily last decades provided you take care of them properly and don't store your CD collection in full sunlight and don't get them all banged up by leaving them outside their cases.
As for my answer to the original topic. After I buy an album I rip it to mp3 and that is how I tend to listen to the music using either my PC (which acts as my home stereo system) or iPod. I rarely use the actual discs aside from that. I keep some of my mp3s backed up on an external HD as well incase of a HD crash. Beyond that I don't do any backupping. I believe in taking good care of my record collection so I don't see the need to.
Yeah some CD-Rs managed to ride it out. I have one or two filled with computer backups from like 9 years ago that still seem to work. But the majority of the CD-Rs that I've burned over the years never made it past 4 years before they started giving read errors when trying to copy stuff off them.
Good quality media combined with proper storage will last them a decent while. The problem is that you can never be sure if the media you're using is the kind that dies after 2 year or after 10 years. Which is why I fundamentally distrust CD-R as any kind of backup medium nowadays. I prefer to just mirror my data on HDs.
Good quality media combined with proper storage will last them a decent while. The problem is that you can never be sure if the media you're using is the kind that dies after 2 year or after 10 years. Which is why I fundamentally distrust CD-R as any kind of backup medium nowadays. I prefer to just mirror my data on HDs.
- Jan 24, 2008
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Mirror? Ya i know its the cd-r and the cd-rw but unfortunately some of my music i have in is only available in the cd-r type(Thy Hastur) so i had to back em up because I've had countless cd-r and cd-rw discs crap out on me but only a couple originals mainly because they were not taken care of and because i was playing original copies.
Understood, then. How much are the archival CDs you use? They seem like they'd be expensive. But if this is how you feel, I don't see how I could argue with you!
Ya they are expensive around $15-$20 for a ten pack an either $150-$200 for a hundred pack, the more expensive have scratch armor coatings on them. The company that makes to Archival Golds also makes dv-r and some other types, they are mainly used to back up photographers portfolio's because usually they will have most of their photographs on cd's for ease of storage. I might look into an external hard drive but what i would be afraid of is something happening to it, the fact that it interfaces with a computer freaks me out because there is always the possibility of the drive becoming corrupt from trash on the pc.
