How to open*ancient* sessions?

[James Steele]

Color me unimpressed with the longevity and robustness of data archived on CD-R orDVD-R. I recently found examples of both that were unreadable. Granted they were probably 20 years old or more, but I wouldn’t consider that very long term.

[monkey man]

Yeah but this is different Jimbo.

Don't get me wrong, I feel ya. I bought thousands of CDRs and DVDRs back in the day. The cheapies lasted 5-10 years. The expensive "archival" ones still seem to be OK for now, but I don't expect them to last more than 20 or at best 30 years.

This "M" thing is a new beast altogether 'though.

From Wikipedia:

M-DISC passed the testing standards of both ISO/IEC 10995:2011[18] and ECMA-379 with a projected rated lifespan of several hundred years in archival use.

The glassy carbon layers, in theory if preserved correctly in an environment like a salt mine, could store the data for over 10,000 years before going outside of readable specifications. However, the polycarbonate plastics, which are commonly used by almost all optical media and heavily in CBRN and ballistic protective equipment due to their optical, physical impact and chemical resistant properties, have a lifespan rating of only around 1000 years before degradation.

So yeah, the data's readability is literally limited only by the polycarbonate disc itself.

Impressive in my book and it gives me hope...

[James Steele]

Yeah but this is different Jimbo.

Wasn’t talking about M-DISC. Just relating a personal experience.

BTW, you had no way of knowing this but I hate being called Jimbo or even Jimmy. My name is James.

[monkey man]

Gee, sorry James; you should have said something decades ago mate.

I actually made sure I didn't do it all-the-time just in case you didn't like it.

For the record, you can call me anything you like.

As for the disc thing, I gathered you were expressing scepticism re the M option based on the context / timing of your post. Sorry I assumed incorrectly mate.