alt Hacker NewsHDDs also lose magnetic charge over time, about 1% per year. So you need to periodically spin up and rewrite the data every few years.
CD drives however, can store data indefinitely without needing refreshing.
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jwitthuhn • last Saturday at 7:41 PM
The important distinction here is that CD-ROMs can store data indefinitely, but CD-Rs and CD-RWs can not.
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aidenn0 • last Saturday at 6:35 PM
CD-R media is of limited shelf life as well though
iwontberude • last Saturday at 7:00 PM
Having had drives which sat for many years and spun right back up without corruption makes me think 1% is too generous maybe 0.05% per year at most
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But the materials on the CD eventually break down, sometimes as soon as within 5 years. So you can look into MDisc, which purports 100 years…but only in theory since the tests are just approximations of what would actually happen.