Discs for

Archiving

Applications?

Optical

Optical Discs

for Archiving?

Choosing an Archive Media

Longevity Accessibility Price Capacity

Define your needs regarding:

Longevity

0

100

200

300

400

500

Years

Longevity of Various Media

Optical Media Other

Storage Types

and Access Time

Storage Type Media Access Time

Primary storage Computer memory Nanoseconds

Secondary Storage Hard drives/Optical discs up to 1 second

Tertiary Storage Tape Library, Optical Jukebox 4–60 seconds

Off-line Storage Tapes, Hard drives, Optical Disc minutes-hours

Capacity vs Access Time

Source: World Technology Evaluation Center, Inc.

Media Capacities/Cost of

initial Purchase

Type Max Capacity Available Lowest Cost/GB

LTO Tape 3.2 TB (compressed) $0.022

Hard Disk 4 TB $0.047

Optical Disc 100 GB $0.031

*Cost/GB not necessarily based on largest capacity

$0.00

$0.01

$0.02

$0.03

$0.04

$0.05

LTO Tape Optical Disc Hard Disk

Cost per GB

LTO Tape

Optical Disc

Hard Disk

Selection Guide

Media Selection Scoreboard

1= Does Not Meet Criteria

3 = Fully Meets Criteria CD-R DVD-R

Hard Linear Flash

Blu-Ray Disk Tape Memory

Longevity 3 3 3 1 1 1

Capacity 1 1 1 3 3 1

Viability (Error Correction) 3 3 3 2 3 2

Obsolescence 3 3 3 2 2 2

Cost 2 2 2 1 3 2

Susceptibility to Damage 3 3 3 3 2 1

Total 15 15 15 12 14 9

Pros And Cons

How long should Archive Grade Media last? What makes it “Archive Grade”? What is needed for best performance?

Data Archiving on

CD-R, DVD R or BD-R Media

Eventual migration to another media is inevitable

Migration is expensive Keep your data on one media as long as possible.

Archive Media:

How long is long enough?

Start with media with the longest expected lifetime.

What makes it “Archive

Grade” ?

High Performance Recording Layer

Long-life Recording Layer

Oxidation Resistant

UV Resistant

Factors That

Affect Lifetime

Factors that affect disc life expectancy

Type of reflective layer

Type of recording layer

Manufacturing quality

Condition of the disc

Quality of the recording

Handling and storage conditions

All discs are not created equal:

Pure Gold Reflective Layer

Disc failure often caused by reflective layer degradation.

Metal layer oxidization = unreadable disc

Gold never oxidizes

For CD-R and DVDR, MAM-A uses 99.99% pure gold

Calculating the Lifetime

of Optical discs

MAM-A uses ISO standards to test longevity:

ISO 18927-2002 for CD-R,

ISO 10995 for DVD-R and Blu-ray.

MAM-A DVD-R Longevity

Longevity of MAM-A BD-R

General Archiving

Recommendations from NIST*

For archiving data on recordable

discs, NIST recommends a

gold metal reflective layer.*

*“Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs—A Guide for Librarians and Archivists”

*National Institute of Standards and Technology

Made in America

MAM-A is the only US manufacturer of Recordable Discs

ISO 9001:2008 Certified

Reseller Margin

Cost for MAM-A Silver Plus Gold Archival disc: $1.20

Typical Selling Price: $2.00

No computer storage medium can be

considered archival, irrespective of

its physical longevity: technological

obsolescence is inevitable and all

media have limited life spans.

Source: National Archives

Thank you!

Click on the link below to view the NIST Archiving guide

“Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs—A Guide for Librarians and Archivists”

There is additional archiving information at MAM-A.com