Kodak Archival shield recordable media against daylight and temperature damage - are you backing up precious data?

This week, I took delivery of our first delivery of the brand new Kodak Archival discs sleeves. These thin synthetic pouches have been silverised with a metal finish and shield against damaging light and temperature - the packaging says they are a 'metalised nano coated sleeve and guard against daylight and heat and are environmentally friendly.

There are two factors to bear in mind when you are observing the archive lifespan of recordable media and in particular DVD, CD and Blueray discs - their shelf lifespan and their longevity after recording. Who would want to burn a discs and then pop it carefully into a case only to return to it a couple of years later to get a number of important photos 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 disaster, having thought about that I still have CD's that I recorded more than 11 years ago and are still top quality - they were not even specifically archival discs and not stored in any particularly special environment!. Disc shelf life is something you have little sway over but the numbers of media sold these days means that each discs you buy should be fairly 'fresh' out of the packet.

Burning discs for archive backup reasons is a different matter from burning for production or short term data hand over between offices. The most widespread use of DVD-R at present is for archival of audio and video clips, photos, images, etc, this means that you could do with to be absolutely confident the files can be read or played back in the years to come without the disc returning data reading faults.

Think it or not but the tangible life span of a recorded piece of disc media whether that be a CD, DVD-R or Bluray discs depends on storage condition, if humidity and in particular temperature are not within factory specs media will weaken and data will be lost as the optical layer on these types of disc is by and large an organic dye. Then again, the guidelines for tolerance on these specifications are fairly forgiving as far as Compact disk, DVD-R and Blu-Ray discs are concerned. temperature as infrared and UV Light as UV daylight are verified to have the most critical effect on disc damage, the simplest reason is to look at how a photo will get worse if left in the sun on a desk - much the same can and will happen to your recorded discs if left to suffer from these two factors.

This is for example why museums decide to store their exhibits in cardboard cases often in heat and humidity controlled environments, so short of packaging up your burned discs in blackout materials and putting them in the loft within a vivarium at a constant temperature you want to be looking for a different solution to shield your disc media! The latest Kodak wallets are made of a synthetic type synthetic material that has been coated with metal, on the packaging it is described as a 'metalized nano coating}' and it looks like the sleeves have been sputtered with aluminum or a few other silver coloured metal. This gives a wallet or sleeve that you thats non transparent it’s this finish that keeps temperature out as well as damaging UV UV Light.

So to the results - my conclusions having examined these new wallets from Kodak - The Kodak Archival discs sleeves - I am confident that they are going to be a excellent addition to the archival policy for those clients and users that have sensitive and precious data backed up onto DVD, Compact disk and Bluray - they effectively block the daylight from reaching the media burned layer and are tremendously thin but sturdy. The pouches can also be labeled or written on with a everlasting marker, all round an excellent product and at approximately £6 for 50 well worth the price to ensure the future of your data, video or photographs.

The future archival plan is something everyone should bear in mind but to be honest most don't bother, so the next time you have a few precious data on a media think cautiously how you will store it just in case you need to get at it not just in some weeks time but perhaps quite a few years later. Hard drive storage isn’t the best solution to long term data backup, they are notorious for failing at the exceedingly moment you require that indispensable photo or video - and guess what, you forgot to make that backup copy to disc! 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 bigger chunks of data and quicker download times are we moving to a throw away way of life in that people consume their download ‘fix’ and straight away scrap it or are there continuously going to be bits you could do with to save? Well I say those important photographic memories require to be kept back split away from your PC, media station or mobile device (all which can and will go wrong at some stage or be lost, stolen or damaged and the current best choice to accomplish that is to back it up onto DVD-R, Compact disk or Bluray discs and accomplish into the habit of storing these disc media in your own archival routine, all you need is a disc wallet and a few of the Kodak media sleeves and your memories are safe for your family to look at and smile!

Article Source: http://gamblingarticlessite.com

Simon Young - Senior Partner
DVD cases and media

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