Does CDROM have a long time?

The DVD [disc] will begin to die in 5 years. [...] I rely on information from the network about the conditions and the maximum lifetime, it may well be crap. But films on DVD [,] purchased ~ 10 years ago [,] now none of several dozens are launched.

From the discussion

For many years, I have accumulated a large collection of CDs and DVD ROMs released by mass circulation; moreover, I periodically archive my files into one-time blanks. Therefore, the statement given in the epigraph, could not interest me.

Of the discs I recorded, the oldest CDs in my collection turned out to be six CDs with the date of creation on 10/24/2003 on noname discs. No problem copied all their contents to the hard disk. Now for recording and reading I use a rather average in parameters device DVD-RAM Recorder TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-224DB; I find it difficult to remember the device on which they were recorded. I do not even remember whether it was preserved or I threw it away. I only remember that, by the standards of that time, it was also quite average. I copied the contents without any problems and also two DVDs on noname discs: I recorded one on February 18, 2005, and the other on February 28, 2005. Documents copied from disks open normally, and zip-archives are unpacked. Naturally, opened selectively. The discs were stored in the living room in plain paper disc packs. I cannot say how many times I read them, but several dozen times for sure.

In the aforementioned discussion, it was suggested that the purchased disks, issued in large quantities with information already recorded on them, are also short-lived. This looks especially surprising, since die-casting is used for their production and there are no materials that could quickly deteriorate.
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One of the oldest mass-produced discs in my collection turned out to be Macs for Macs:

Apple Developer CD Series; MacOS 8.1; Feb, 1998,

and

Pacific HiTech: InfoMac VII; Jan. 1996.

No problem copied their contents to the MacOS X virtual machine (the screen shot is used for the screen saver of this note). Files normally open. The only thing that fails is to start the applications: when you try, a message appears that the applications of the classic Macintosh are no longer supported. But this is a matter of apple politics (there are emulators of the classic "iron"), and not CD longevity.

From the disks for the PC copied:

1C: Collection of toys: Space Rangers, 2002,

and

1C: Collection of toys: Space Rangers 2, 2 CDs, 2004.

Copied fine. Thus, the rumors about the allegedly short life of compact discs are clearly exaggerated. At the same time, it is quite possible that there were movie discs, which, as stated in the epigraph, do not run on anything in a few years. It is not enough that there are products of completely unacceptable quality.

I read that the first CDs were written on blanks with a gold-bearing coating. The recording process was very capricious and almost never succeeded on the first attempt. Recording was very slow. Since then, significant progress has been made in this area, and now it is usually possible to quietly and very quickly burn a disc. But even though I write discs only for my own use and not very often, over the course of many years, I have made the necessary rules that must be observed.

Rule 1. Verification is required after recording. In the program Nero, which I use, for this you need to tick.

Rule 2. The recording speed should not be higher than the device capability and the speed indicated on the disc. If verification was unsuccessful, then the speed should be reduced. In this case, you can get a noticeable gain in time. For example, I had cases when, at a speed of 16x, verification took almost 40 minutes. and gave an error after making 90% progress. And at a speed of 10x, the verification was successful, in less than 20 minutes. Given that the recording is faster verification. In general, especially in the case of cheap blanks, do not need to believe everything that is written on them.

Rule 3. As an additional check, the contents of each disk must be copied to the hard disk. This looks like a reinsurance, but this is not a laborious operation for a person. While you are copying, you can, for example, play a game of chess with a computer.

In this technology, I am primarily attracted by reliability. Any device in which electronics and moving parts, as in the HDD, or only electronics, as in SSD and flash cards, has the unpleasant property of unexpectedly burning out. And HDD is not recommended to drop. To incapacitate a DVD, you need to really try, for example, to put a hot kettle iron on it for a long time. But even the loss of one DVD is not the loss of the entire collection, as can be, if the archive is stored on an external hard drive. Despite the fact that the price of the hard drive for archiving may be lower than the price of discs of the same total capacity, reliability of discs pays for it.

It is believed that the Internet and cloud technologies will soon completely solve the problem of data storage. Unfortunately, while the speed of access to data on the Internet is situational, but often, it is unexpectedly low, despite the good parameters of connecting to the network. And using a local archive is often faster than re-downloading via a remote link. In addition, it is not possible to log on to the same Internet twice. For example, I have posted publications and programs on the websites of some well-known companies. Then they were suddenly deleted and, if I did not have copies, I would have lost them. Remembering this, I, as I see an interesting publication or program - I immediately download it, knowing from my own experience that it may not be tomorrow. This explains the additional consumption of space on local disks.

An important, in my opinion, advantage is mobility. I have a computer in the room and a TV in the kitchen. I can watch a movie from a disc on a computer, but I can also watch a cheap player through the TV. Here, of course, everyone has different preferences - many prefer to carry a laptop with them. In my opinion, for a home stationary desktop more convenient. New OS also prefer to download to DVD. Recently, for example, I downloaded a new version of the Fedora Live CD. If I find myself cut off from the Internet due to the fact that the OS is covered, then the Live CD will help restore or reinstall the system. It is possible to load and install a system from a flash drive, but a flash card is more expensive and, as already noted, less reliable. I’m used to systems and drafts on DVDs so that they don’t get confused on the hard drive under my feet, as they become obsolete, I just throw out the discs, but this is probably a matter of habit. To some, my approach will seem inconvenient, and to someone it may be useful - I do not insist, but it seems to me that it is still too early to discard DVD ROM technology as something obsolete and outdated.