What is the lifetime of CDs, diskettes, ZIP disks, hard drives, tapes, etc.?
Professionals working intensively with diskettes and hard drives tend to trust them for only up to five years before they feel a need to copy the data to a new medium or to a new unit of the same medium. The lifetime ranges of certain media under standard storage conditions (23°C and 50% relative humidity) are: • Read-only CDs (factory stamped): 5 to 100 or more years depending on disc manufacturing quality • CD-Rs (Compact Disc Recordable): 5 to 200 years depending on disc type and manufacturing quality • CD-RWs (Re-Writeable): 5 to 100 or more years depending on manufacturing quality • DVD, DVD-Rs, DVD-RWs (Digital Versatile Disc, Recordable, Re-Writeable): not much data is available for DVDs, but its lifetime is generally expected to be similar to that of a CD • Tapes: 10 to 30 years • Diskettes and Hard Drive: 5 to 15 years Storing diskettes in hotter and more humid conditions than recommended will reduce the lifetime ranges stated above; cooler and drier will extend their life. Th
