How to safeguard content for years to come?

[The Flying Cow]

This question has been on the back of my mind for a while now. From the diverse literature available on the interwebs, I read different things. Some places say that after 3ish years your DVD-Rs stop working (burnt ones, I mean), others have other figures.

I'm just wondering, and I'd like to know with some measure of certainty, what is the safest way to go about safeguarding your DVD-Rs for the years to come.

Should one proceed to, every few (3 or so) years, re-burning discs to avoid them becoming obsolete, or is it sufficient to just burn them well the first time, store them in a proper casing, in the shadows (far away from contact with high temperatures or strong light/heat), and they should be fine?

Let us know what you think/have found out.

[DKre8ive1]

I found out that going with low cost DVDr usually means that I start loosing data after a few months but then again my room gets pretty hot and that could be a major factor.

I would also recommend you take a look at this article-> http://adterrasperaspera.com/blog/2006/10/30/how-to-choose-cddvd-archival-media

[clocker]

That's a great article you cite, DK...thanks.

Shaman...
Personally, I don't burn disks to save data, preferring to just use external hard drives instead.
Given the decreasing cost of high capacity drives and the fast transfer rates afforded by eSATA, optical disks seem like a poor option these days.
External drive docks (Thermaltake, Silverstone and soon, others I'm sure) make dropping a drive in the slot and GO! a very easy proposition.

Furthermore, larger and faster thumb drives have taken the place of the "one-off" CDs I used to make to transfer data from one PC to another.

Now that MS has evolved to the point where you can install the OS from a USB device and the majority of applications are available online, the need for a physical disk- and the device to read it- is beginning to seem superfluous.

These days, the only time I use my DVD drive is to watch movies from the library and I can't even remember the last time I burned a disk.

[Detale]

I agree, I only burn disks for friends now and nothing important either just movies and pics sometimes. I keep an external HDD just for backup. I backup about once a month and then unplug that sucker and put it in the vault under my house for safe keeping :)