DVD Rot Questions Continue

Does putting a label on a recordable DVD hasten its demise? The fear is that chemicals in the adhesive may penetrate to the plastic layer that contains the data, altering its reflectivity enough to ruin the data.

Whether this is likely or not (and it theoretically should be less likely with recordable DVDs than with recordable CDs), the question still arises when someone finds a labelled DVD that's "gone bad". In his popular Chicago Tribute Q&A column, Jim Coates responds to this question with timeless, if not satisfying, advice: be sure to make a safe backup copy of any important data you put on recordable DVDs.

You can read Jim's entire column online.

July 05, 2004July