Long term storage?

[FireStormGS]

In the past I've burned all my backed up CDs and movies to CD. But now that some of the first cds ive burned are starting to hit the year and half mark I think the data is starting to go, watching some of the old movies, there will be small skips during playback. So I started to think of a new medium on witch to store my backups. I bought a 160gig and then a month later a 200gig because it was on sale. The plan was to move the majority of the cd backups to the harddrives. Now I'm running short on ide channels, power connectors and space in my computer, and starting to look at DVD.

My question is, should I stay with hard drive storage for long term media that gets accessed rarely? I should I maybe be looking into a new dvd burner, maybe dual layer when its available?

Secondly, what is the average shelf life of burned cds and dvds?

Thanks.

 

[djnes]

If your data is "starting to go" after only a year and a half, I would start buying better CDs and start storing them in jewel cases.

 

[D3v1an7]

Agreed.

Are you beating the crap out of your cd's?

Or maybe, your computer has so mush spyware on it that it causes your movies to skip when you watch them.

 

[tdg]

I've got CD-R's that I burned in 1996 that still work today, the only ones giving me a problem sometimes are ones that have the sticky label on them, it seems to screw with the reflective layer. If you have CD-R's dying after 1.5 years, you need to invest in better media.

 

[ameoba]

If you want to use a HDD for backup, why not put it in a USB enclosure? Keeping your 'backup' device live & connected to the computer isn't too useful...