I have a CD binder from Case Logic that can hold 200-something CD's. I used a few pages of it store discs I burned of backup data, old projects, photos, etc., etc. I was cleaning it out because most of the discs were old, and I was planning on using the binder for my DVD collection. I noticed two things:
1) Disc rot is very apparent in my 5-6 year old discs. The TDK's have these puffy clouds in the center clear ring. The older TDK's have puffy clouds appearing on the bottom of the disc's surface. They look like smudges except they can't be cleaned. The Memorex discs are beginning to lose the metal coating. You can Google disc rot. I think there's more scientific studies on this.
2) Now for my surprising finding... CD wallets don't seem all that good at protecting your discs. I noticed many of my discs had long scratches, often deep and thick. I figured maybe the zipper was scratching my discs when I pulled the discs out. Each sleeve has nylon one side and plastic on the other. I attempted to scratch a few discs on the zipper, and they barely left a mark or were very thing scratches. I tried rubbing my discs on the nylon part. Those left quite a bit of scratches depending on disc. Some discs came out barely touched. Some had several scratches all over the surface. My final test was rubbing it on the plastic on each sleeve. Those things ate the chewed up the discs with a few rubs. Scratches were deep and long. Why does this matter? Well, if you ever tried pulling out a disc on these things, you probably will invariably scrape the adjacent plastic sleeve. Unless you pull your discs out nice and slow and treat it like a warhead... That explains all of the deep, long scratches on my discs.
I never really trusted disc wallets/binders, but I decided to get one on Black Friday a couple of years back for all of my burned discs. I try to keep my discs immaculate and scratch free by keeping them in their original cases, but buying cases for these case-less discs is kind of pricey and takes up space. Now, I definitely won't be ever getting a disc wallet.
Of course, feel free to post your trustworthy disc wallet/binders.
1) Disc rot is very apparent in my 5-6 year old discs. The TDK's have these puffy clouds in the center clear ring. The older TDK's have puffy clouds appearing on the bottom of the disc's surface. They look like smudges except they can't be cleaned. The Memorex discs are beginning to lose the metal coating. You can Google disc rot. I think there's more scientific studies on this.
2) Now for my surprising finding... CD wallets don't seem all that good at protecting your discs. I noticed many of my discs had long scratches, often deep and thick. I figured maybe the zipper was scratching my discs when I pulled the discs out. Each sleeve has nylon one side and plastic on the other. I attempted to scratch a few discs on the zipper, and they barely left a mark or were very thing scratches. I tried rubbing my discs on the nylon part. Those left quite a bit of scratches depending on disc. Some discs came out barely touched. Some had several scratches all over the surface. My final test was rubbing it on the plastic on each sleeve. Those things ate the chewed up the discs with a few rubs. Scratches were deep and long. Why does this matter? Well, if you ever tried pulling out a disc on these things, you probably will invariably scrape the adjacent plastic sleeve. Unless you pull your discs out nice and slow and treat it like a warhead... That explains all of the deep, long scratches on my discs.
I never really trusted disc wallets/binders, but I decided to get one on Black Friday a couple of years back for all of my burned discs. I try to keep my discs immaculate and scratch free by keeping them in their original cases, but buying cases for these case-less discs is kind of pricey and takes up space. Now, I definitely won't be ever getting a disc wallet.
Of course, feel free to post your trustworthy disc wallet/binders.
