Last year sometime, the Powerwife and I lost many digital photos we had stored on our home computer, including our pictures of one of the Powerkid's third birthday party. Luckily, we were new to digital photography at the time so we didn't lose too many pictures.
I know, I should have backed those pictures up and I have been doing just that since then. But it sounds like the CD's I use to back my photos up on don't last more than a few years:
"Unlike pressed original CDs, burned CDs have a relatively short life span of between two to five years, depending on the quality of the CD," Gerecke says. "There are a few things you can do to extend the life of a burned CD, like keeping the disc in a cool, dark space, but not a whole lot more."
The problem is material degradation. Optical discs commonly used for burning, such as CD-R and CD-RW, have a recording surface consisting of a layer of dye that can be modified by heat to store data. The degradation process can result in the data "shifting" on the surface and thus becoming unreadable to the laser beam.
"Many of the cheap burnable CDs available at discount stores have a life span of around two years," Gerecke says. "Some of the better-quality discs offer a longer life span, of a maximum of five years."
From what I've read, personally-recorded DVD's last for decades, so I am probably safe if I decided to put some of our home movies on DVD. Then I'll be able to bore the neighbors for years!