There is a lot of discussion on what is the best way to back up media files.
CD, DVD, Blu Ray, Tape, mechanical drive, "thumb" drives, SSD and so on.
The reality is that all of them can fail. CD storage gets a bad rap and deservedly so when one uses inferior discs. Sadly, most on the market discs that are popular by brand are bad choices. There are however (as with DVD) some very good choices. They are designed to be archival by nature.
The short version - CD-R etc. have unstable or low life dyes. Superior media may be produced with long life dyes that can offer far past 30 years. These include stabilized Cyanine, a combination with Azo dye and more.
I highly suggest you (and those unsatisfied with disc media) look at the following link that can explain far better the reality of disc media.
http://adterrasperaspera.com/blog/2006/10/30/how-to-choose-cddvd-archival-media
This is a good starting point and mentions at least one company that is devoted to archival disc media.
I personally find when storing media, to use both asynchronous redundant drives and disc. The latter is "bulk" files (everything I can store) and the former is for potential return to use files. When I say asynchronous, I am suggesting rather than mirroring drives, use a good duplicating software that allows just the changes to be added to the second drive (including deletions and changes in files). CC Clone and SuperDuper are a couple of easy to use standard choices.
If you opt for mechanical drives, which can store far more than a CD or DVD, just realize if the drive goes bad far more files are lost. Thus, going redundant is important on hard drives.
I hope this helps a bit.
CD, DVD, Blu Ray, Tape, mechanical drive, "thumb" drives, SSD and so on.
The reality is that all of them can fail. CD storage gets a bad rap and deservedly so when one uses inferior discs. Sadly, most on the market discs that are popular by brand are bad choices. There are however (as with DVD) some very good choices. They are designed to be archival by nature.
The short version - CD-R etc. have unstable or low life dyes. Superior media may be produced with long life dyes that can offer far past 30 years. These include stabilized Cyanine, a combination with Azo dye and more.
I highly suggest you (and those unsatisfied with disc media) look at the following link that can explain far better the reality of disc media.
http://adterrasperaspera.com/blog/2006/10/30/how-to-choose-cddvd-archival-media
This is a good starting point and mentions at least one company that is devoted to archival disc media.
I personally find when storing media, to use both asynchronous redundant drives and disc. The latter is "bulk" files (everything I can store) and the former is for potential return to use files. When I say asynchronous, I am suggesting rather than mirroring drives, use a good duplicating software that allows just the changes to be added to the second drive (including deletions and changes in files). CC Clone and SuperDuper are a couple of easy to use standard choices.
If you opt for mechanical drives, which can store far more than a CD or DVD, just realize if the drive goes bad far more files are lost. Thus, going redundant is important on hard drives.
I hope this helps a bit.