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Comment by Test0129 | Hacker News Reader

After quite a bit of research into this about a year back I decided to archive everything on archive-grade CD-Rs. 20-50 years is more than enough and realistically in the correct climate (a safe or something that humidity would have trouble getting into along with dessicants, etc) could last much longer. I evaluated magnetic tape, HDDs, and a few other options are CD-Rs are as good as magnetic tape (in longevity) and will likely have readers well into the next century.

But you have to be very careful. There are a few brands, in particular Taiyo Yuden that are the absolute best. CMC Pro is a related brand with the same technology/longevity (and easier to get). You will pay quadruple the cost per CD but its worth every penny.

Avoid Memorex, JVC, etc. Basically any brand you can pick up at your local big box retailer.

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> Taiyo Yuden

I have not been able to buy these in the last few years. Also, when I was able to buy them, one had to be careful of counterfeits.

Do you have a source for them?

TY closed down their own disc manufacturing in 2015. Nowadays the CMC Pro line (with 'Powered by TY Technology' branding) is the closest you're going to get.

I don't unfortunately. I use CMC Pro now which is highly regarded. They're "powered by TY technology" which I took to mean essentially white labeled TY, made in Taiwan, so I also assumed that CMC Pro was the actual producer of TY and now that TY is defunct CMC Pro took over selling stuff.

I've always only bought Taiyo Yuden media since ~2000. Every CD-R and DVD-R I still have that I've tried is still readable.

Taiyo Yuden at least used to be white labeled sometimes, so you'd just look up online what white-label media at Best Buy or CompUSA at the time was Taiyo Yuden.

I haven't burned a disc in probably close to a decade at this point though. SpiderOak is my backup.

I think I have a lifetime supply of TY media. I hardly ever use it. I don't even know if it is CD or DVD. I'd have to look. I wonder if there is a shelf life for the media before it is recorded.

I'm in the spinning rust camp. I use the ZFS filesystem which protects against bit rot and I usually migrate to larger drives every several years. And I have an off site mirror of my local storage. My only concern is what happens to it when I'm no longer able to manage it. I guess I need to leave instructions.

Is there a reason you didn't go with M-disc?

Honestly never came across it in my research. I used music producers and professional archivists as my leaping off point and for them TY and CMC Pro seemed to be the bread and butter. I'll take a look at these though!

CD-R’s after 2020?

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