Search:

Home | Computer


Kodak Archival wallets guard recordable discs against light and temperature damage - are you backing up your data?

By: Simon D Young

This shipment, I received our first delivery of the brand new Kodak Archive media wallets. These thin synthetic sleeves have been silverised with a metal finish and guard against damaging light and heat - the packaging says they are a 'metalized nano coated sleeve and safeguard against UV Light and heat and are environmentally friendly.

There are 2 factors to consider when you are looking into the archive life of recordable disc and in particular DVD-R, CD and Bluray discs - their shelf lifespan and their longevity after burning. You wouldn't want to burn a media and then pop it safely into a case only to return to it a couple of years later to get a number of valued photographs or a backup only to find there were media read errors due to media degradation - no one, and in a lot of situations this would be more than a catastrophe, taking all that into account I still own Cds that I burned more than 10 years ago and are still good quality - they were not even specifically archive discs and not stored in any particularly special environment!. Media shelf lifespan is something you have slight influence over but the numbers of media sold these days means that each disc you buy should be reasonably 'fresh' out of the packet.

Burning media for archive backup reasons is a different matter from recording for presentation or short term data conveying between locations. The most general use of DVDR currently is for archival of video and audio snippets, photographs, images, etc, this means that you need to be completely positive the files can be read or played back in the distant future without the media giving data reading errors.

Believe it or not but the tangible life span of a recorded piece of media whether that be a Compact disk, DVD-R or Bluray discs depends on storage condition, if humidity and in particular temperature are not within factory specifications media will deteriorate and data will be gone as the recordable layer on these types of disc is usually an organic dye. On the other hand, the strategy for tolerance on these specifications are fairly forgiving as far as Compact disk, DVD and Blueray discs are concerned. temperature as infrared and UV Light as UV UV Light are verified to have the most significant effect on discs damage, the most simple explanation is to observe how a photograph will deteriorate if left in the sun on a desk - much the same can and will happen to your burned disc media if left to experience from these 2 detrimental effects.

This is why museums choose to store their exhibits contained by cardboard cases often in temperature and dampness controlled environments, so short of wrapping up your burned disc media in blackout materials and putting them in the loft within a vivarium at a stable heat you want to be looking for a different solution to protect your disc media! The new Kodak wallets are made of a synthetic type synthetic material that has been layered with metal, on the packaging it is described as a 'metalized nano finish}' and it looks like the wallets have been sputtered with aluminum or some other silver coloured metal. This gives a sleeve or wallet that you can't see through it’s this coating that keeps temperature out as well as harmful UV light.

Here are my conclusions having examined these brand new sleeves from Kodak - The Kodak Archival media pouches - I am sure that they are going to be a very good addition to the archival plan for those consumers and users that have sensitive and precious data backed up onto DVD, CD and Bluray - they effectively block the UV Light from reaching the disc media recorded layer and are exceedingly thin but resilient. The pouches can also be labeled or written on with a everlasting marker, all round an first-rate product and at roughly £6 for 50 well worth the price to make sure the future of your data, video or photos.

The future archive policy is something everybody should contemplate but it can be said most don't bother, so next time you have some valuable data on a disc suppose cautiously how you will store it just in case you want to accomplish at it not just in a number of weeks time but perhaps quite a few years later. HD storage isn’t the best solution to long term data backup, they are infamous for failing at the exceptionally moment you want that important photograph or video - and guess what, you forgot to back it all up to media! People have said that Dvd-r and CD are on their way out, but in this day and age of almost everything coming in more and more larger chunks of data and quicker download speeds are we moving to a throw away culture in that people consume their download ‘fix’ and straight away delete it or are there continuously going to be bits you require to save? Well I say those valuable photo memories need to be kept back separate away from your PC, media station or mobile phone (all which can and will go wrong at a few stage or be lost stolen or damaged and the current best choice to achieve that is to back it up onto DVD-R, Compact disk or Blu-ray discs and accomplish into the routine of storing these discs in your own archival system, all you need is a disc wallet and some of the Kodak media wallets and your memories are secure for your relatives to look at and smile!

Article Source: http://www.gambling-articles.org

Simon Young - Senior Partner
DVD cases and media

Please Rate this Article

 

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Computer Articles Via RSS!

Powered by Article Dashboard