Despite storing CD-Rs recorded in ideal conditions, tech site TechARP unboxed 300 CDs recorded between 7 to 9 years ago, and found that they have a failure rate approaching 10 percent for the first 173 discs--the restoration is still on-going. Back when hard disk storage was expensive and archiving data on CD-Rs was all the rage; manufacturers quoted life spans of up to 120 years. The loss ranges from irrecoverable individual files to difficulty reading the disks as a whole.

This should serve as a good wake-up call to the very real problem of bit rot. "It is likely that some could potentially still be readable decades from now. However, you can bet your last dollar that at least a percentage of your CD-Rs will fail after a few years," Tech ARP concluded.

Important items should be backed up using multiple storage options and checked regularly.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Tech ARP

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