I recently learned of MDisc (there’s a CD and DVD version, too, iirc) and decided to get a burner and convert my old data CDs.
While I haven’t verified every single bit, I did check that the files copied off of it were still functional and didn’t see any issues. Also didn’t get any errors. I was surprised because I’ve had some of them for over 20 years now and didn’t do more than put them in CD binders to protect them (during the days when I didn’t even consider the longevity of the media, other then obvious things like scratches.
Only disc I wasn’t able to get the data from was a packet CD, which was a special format that facilitated treating the disc more like diskettes, where you could read or write at will via the filesystem rather than writing the disc as a special package from the start (or having multiple sessions if there’s still room on the disc after one such write). I was able to find references to the tech, though not if it was a standard or just a name a few different companies used for different implementations, but I wasn’t able to find Linux drivers that could do anything other than rip the ISO and a few strings or tell me it can’t find anything. Though it’s possible that corruption is really what happened here because I’d expect RW CDs to last a shorter time than the write once ones.
Though I suppose I could try it on my old windows machine and see if drivers are more readily available there.
Yeah, those were CDs. I don’t think I got to the DVDs, since my sense of urgency faded after I saw the older ones seemed ok. I’ll have to check them out after you said that, though lol.
I recently learned of MDisc (there’s a CD and DVD version, too, iirc) and decided to get a burner and convert my old data CDs.
While I haven’t verified every single bit, I did check that the files copied off of it were still functional and didn’t see any issues. Also didn’t get any errors. I was surprised because I’ve had some of them for over 20 years now and didn’t do more than put them in CD binders to protect them (during the days when I didn’t even consider the longevity of the media, other then obvious things like scratches.
Only disc I wasn’t able to get the data from was a packet CD, which was a special format that facilitated treating the disc more like diskettes, where you could read or write at will via the filesystem rather than writing the disc as a special package from the start (or having multiple sessions if there’s still room on the disc after one such write). I was able to find references to the tech, though not if it was a standard or just a name a few different companies used for different implementations, but I wasn’t able to find Linux drivers that could do anything other than rip the ISO and a few strings or tell me it can’t find anything. Though it’s possible that corruption is really what happened here because I’d expect RW CDs to last a shorter time than the write once ones.
Though I suppose I could try it on my old windows machine and see if drivers are more readily available there.
Were they CD or DVD? My CDs have lasted. It’s the DVD’s that had bit errors.
Yeah, those were CDs. I don’t think I got to the DVDs, since my sense of urgency faded after I saw the older ones seemed ok. I’ll have to check them out after you said that, though lol.