Every method of storing information has its drawbacks, despite how permanent it may seem. Stone crumbles. Paper discolors. Ink fades. Even videotape loses its clarity with time. Now it seems the Information Age faces similar issues. Those recordable CDs (CD-Rs) that you’ve come to trust may not be as safe and secure as you may think. Stop and think for a moment. All that music, all those photos. Not secure?

First, let me say this. No CD is indestructible. Despite those claims made by sales people of flinging CDs through parking lots and still playing them, all CDs are susceptible to damage. It just turns out, however, that CD-Rs are more susceptible. It’s the way they’re made that makes them the weaker of the two.

Scratches Damage CDs

CDs are basically a media sandwich. In the case of prerecorded CDs, a thin layer of etched metal (such as aluminum) is encased between a thick layer of polycarbonate plastic on the bottom, and thin layer of acrylic on top. The etchings give the CD the ability to store data, like music, computer files, even movies, in the form of pits and flat spots that a laser can read. On a CD-R, you create the etchings using your computer’s CD writer or burner. It takes a couple extra layers of material to pull this off. One layer holds the reflective material, like the aluminum above. The other holds the layer burned by your writer’s laser to create the pits and flats. Since a CD-R isn’t any thicker than a recorded CD, these layers are each thinner than the single layer in the recorded CD.

The polycarbonate layer is the thicker of the two. It’s the acrylic layer that presents the most problems. In extreme heat or sunlight, the acrylic can warp or peel, taking the recordable layers with it. Keeping discs in a cool, dry location will help prevent damage.

It also seems that those colorfully printed labels that you carefully put on with your CD Stomper or that little label doohickey may actually eat away at the acrylic over time.

Perhaps the biggest threat to your collection of family photos is a mere scratch. The acrylic layer is very soft and can easily be scratched. And the reflective recording layer is frighteningly close to the top surface.

I wanted to see how easily a CD-R would scratch. The first test was on the driveway. I put a CD face down, pressed and pulled. That made a quarter- to half-inch hole clear through to the lower polycarbonate layer, flecking shiny gold stuff everywhere. That was too easy. Next was a key (you can see where this is going). The key to the front door easily cleared a strip in the acrylic and reflective material. More gold flecks. Finally, I tried a ballpoint pen. I couldn’t believe how little effort it took to crinkle the CD material bringing up even more gold flecks. It was time to get out the Shark and clean up my mess.

Smart Storage

For now, the best way to protect your CD-Rs is to practice a little preventative maintenance. If you’re saving your regular backups to CD, there’s no need to change your routine. If you’re moving last year’s photos, taxes or other files to CD-Rs for storage or archiving, you may want to take a few precautions. Start with your labels. Don’t put a sticky label on the CD-R itself. Instead, put a label on a jewel case that will be used to store your CD. Use a permanent marker to put an identifying mark or number on the inside ring of the CD-R (off area where the reflective material can be seen). Store your CD-R in its jewel box in a dry place where the temperature is about 68 degrees.

To truly protect your information, you may consider creating a new copy of your CD-Rs every five to seven years. To do this, you’ll need to copy the information from a CD-R to your hard drive, then burn it back to a new CD-R.

There’s some debate out there about the life expectancy of CD-Rs. According to Andy McFadden’s “CD-Recordable FAQ” (www.cdrfaq.com), manufacturers claim recorded CD-Rs will last 75, 100, even 200 years, but unrecorded CD-Rs may have a shelf life of just five to ten years. It’s kind of one of those things that you don’t want to find out for yourself. Maybe we can hope a technology will come around that is more permanent. Like stone tablets.