Can live-cds "go bad"?

[dragos240]

I dragos240, ask you the question of whether live-cds can go bad. Every once in a while I need to edit something I cant while my disk is mounted, I have to use a live-cd, so I pop in my old live-cd of parted-magic and to my surprise, it can't even boot into the console mode, I try my old copy of an intrepid cd, same thing, and my new jaunty cd that I got a few weeks ago, it works fine. I use live-cds all the time, and I keep having to buy more disks, when I put the iso on a new disk, it works again! My assumption is that the older the cd is, the more wierd things occur.

[Skripka]

You don't say how old.

My experience, on the shelf burned CDs will usually only stay readable about 3-5 years. An Ibex LiveCD should still be fine.

[dragos240]

Wierd I burned them about 2 months ago.

[Skripka]

Wierd I burned them about 2 months ago.

Also remember, that LiveCDs are a fussy thing. Usually to get them to work you need good CD media, and you need to burn them slowly. Considering those demands I wouldn't be surprised if the life of a livecd was much less....but 2 months makes me wonder how cheap your CD media was.

[dragos240]

Also remember, that LiveCDs are a fussy thing. Usually to get them to work you need good CD media, and you need to burn them slowly. Considering those demands I wouldn't be surprised if the life of a livecd was much less....but 2 months makes me wonder how cheap your CD media was.

I burned them freshly onto 6 year old cd-rs. Quickly. Perhaps thats why?

[HappyFeet]

My experience, on the shelf burned CDs will usually only stay readable about 3-5 years.

You must be buying extremely cheap cd's then. I read an article where they said a user burned cd should outlast a store bought one. They said you should get 20 years or more from a burned cd. Google it.

You can also get archival grade cd's that can last over 100 years, but are very expensive.

[oldsoundguy]

you don't say how or where the disks are stored. If in a jewel box out of heat and/or sunlight, they should last for a while .. if in the cat litter box or loosely piled up in a drawer without a sleeve, a day or so.

[lisati]

I've occasionally had a music CD go belly-up within a few days. For me it seems to be a combination of the brand of CD-R and how well I've looked after them. There's one particular brand I'm reluctant to buy after burning a number of compilation CDs which worked fine when they were first played but a day or two later (or even after a couple of hours) there's annoying sound effects similar to the clicks and pops on the vinyl LPs.

[Skripka]

You must be buying extremely cheap cd's then. I read an article where they said a user burned cd should outlast a store bought one. They said you should get 20 years or more from a burned cd. Google it.

You can also get archival grade cd's that can last over 100 years, but are very expensive.

I have a few ~20 year old CDROMs laying around my morgue of old media. Still reads fine. I have lots of CD-R by various makers and none of them have lasted beyond a few years. Such as Memorex, Sony, etc.

[dragos240]

you don't say how or where the disks are stored. If in a jewel box out of heat and/or sunlight, they should last for a while .. if in the cat litter box or loosely piled up in a drawer without a sleeve, a day or so.

Ehh.... in my room on a shelf of clutter. With an almost constant degrees of 75F

[Dharmachakra]

You should always burn the discs as slowly as possible... it saves a lot of headaches later.

Are these disc-life figures of discs in storage or discs actually being used on a regular basis?

[dragos240]

You should always burn the discs as slowly as possible... it saves a lot of headaches later.

Are these disc-life figures of discs in storage or discs actually being used on a regular basis?

I leave these disks lying around the place:
Ex: left on the desk, left on the shelf, printer, but NEVER the floor.

[gn2]

Get yourself some 1-4x CD-RW discs, then they can't be burnt too fast and if they go off, just burn them again.

[starcannon]

Thumbprints, Scratches, Caustic material contact (including some inks used to label) Are just a few of the things that can ruin a disk. I always try a little liquid dish detergent w/warm water and bare hands, wipe from center to edge drying with soft lint free towel. 9/10 of the time this is all thats wrong, some imperceptible fingerprint or other contaminate is removed, the laser is now refracting within tolerance, and the disk works. Otherwise I write off the 30 cents, and burn a new one.

[dragos240]

Okay im burning parted magic onto a cd at x8 speed. Which seemed like the slowest, is it the slowest? Or are the higher numbers slower?

[phrostbyte]

If it get scratched it's pretty much worthless. Ubuntu CDs especially are very dense with information, they must be pristine to work.

[samjh]

Exposure to moisture, dust, and especially sunlight, can cause CDs to go "off".

Like any measure of probability of failure, you have to first determine what risk you are willing to accept. If you're willing to accept 5% chance of failure, then your desired life-expectancy for a CD-R is going to be shorter than someone who is willing to accept only 1% of failure.

Technically, CD-Rs can last for 200 years. That's based on mathematical models which predict changes in chemical composition of the CD-R's readable surface. The real-world is harsher. Conservative estimates say only 5 years, which is probably appropriate for data of very high importance. If you're a casual CD-R user who doesn't use CD-Rs for important data, the CD-R will probably outlast your life if stored safely in a case and occasionally checked for damage.

[xuCGC002]

I dragos240, ask you the question of whether live-cds can go bad. Every once in a while I need to edit something I cant while my disk is mounted, I have to use a live-cd, so I pop in my old live-cd of parted-magic and to my surprise, it can't even boot into the console mode...

Actually, my LiveCDs have also stopped booting, either properly or at all. And most of them are pressed by Canonical/Redhat!

I wonder if it's the CD reader... Or BIOS... I just can't boot them properly, on either CD/CD-RW drives...

[sailthesea]

Lowest xnumber = Lowest speed
The quality of the media and the hardware used to produce it are critical as well as careful storage
Look at Xbox discs so much as look at one too hard and it stops working!

[faraz_k86]

they caertainly can.. I requested an ubuntu 8.10 cd from canonical. It took 4 weeks to arrive, and when i checked the cd for defects there were errors on it. hence unusable

[t0p]

What a surprise! CDs that you've had kicking around for ages, getting used and abused, sitting in clutter without the "protection" of a jewel case, no doubt scratched to hell, stop working. Whereas a freshly-burned disk works fine. I wonder what can be the cause of that?!! Duhh!!

[Dharmachakra]

Look at Xbox discs so much as look at one too hard and it stops working!

That's simply not true...

I feel like you can't say a LiveCD could potentially last for five years. If you left it in the case alone it might. But if it's constantly being written to and read from it's a different situation.

[dragos240]

What a surprise! CDs that you've had kicking around for ages, getting used and abused, sitting in clutter without the "protection" of a jewel case, no doubt scratched to hell, stop working. Whereas a freshly-burned disk works fine. I wonder what can be the cause of that?!! Duhh!!

Err..... I burned these 2 months ago and kept them in a constant place where they wouldn't get scratched.