DiamonDisc Will Store Data for 1,000 Years on Stone Disks

CD and DVD disks you record on your computer will last an average of two to five years. If you would like to record your family photographs and videos for preservation, you'll want something that lasts longer. A start-up company in Ferndale, Washington, claims to have the answer. Cranberry LLC sells DVD disks that literally last a millennium.

Cranberry says its DiamonDisc product, which can be played in any standard DVD player, is not subject to deterioration from heat, ultraviolet rays, or material rot due to humidity or other elements. The DiamonDisc has no dyes, adhesives, or reflective materials like standard DVD discs, and its discs are made from a vastly more durable synthetic stone. That's right: stone.

NOTE: Prerecorded disks manufactured in a factory will last quite a bit longer than the disks you record at home, perhaps 10 to 25 years. Mass-duplicated DVDs are made using an entirely different process known as “glass mastering.” This article will focus solely on disks that are recorded one at a time on an individual computer.

Data is recorded on the DiamonDisc platter in much the same way as a standard DVD disc, but with DiamonDisc the burner etches much deeper pits. The DiamonDisc product holds a standard 4.7 gigabytes of data (the same as standard DVD disks), which amounts to approximately 2,000 photos, or 1,200 songs, or three hours of video,

While the DiamonDisc can be played back on any standard DVD player, recording the disks requires special hardware, which remains quite expensive at this time: $4,995. That price is expected to drop, however, as the technology becomes more popular. The burner plugs into any standard USB port and uses any standard Windows or Macintosh DVD burning software.

While waiting for the prices to drop, anyone may upload photos, videos or other content directly to Cranberry's Web site or mail them to the company. Cranberry will then write that data to a DiamonDisc and mail the disk to the customer. A single DiamonDisc costs $34.95; two or more individual discs go for $29.95; and a five-pack is $149.75.

The DiamonDisc technology was invented by researchers at Brigham Young University and was first brought to market by Springville, Utah, startup Millenniata. While Millenniata performs the R&D on the product, Cranberry does the sales and marketing. Millenniata is in talks with the U.S. Government and the military, which are looking for archival media.

Cranberry said it is also working on producing a Blu-ray version of its 1,000-year disc.

You can read more about the DiamonDisc product and the services available at http://cranberry.com.

All this begs one question: who will have the hardware to read these disks a thousand years from now?

Comments

[Jason Presley]

So in thousands of years, we've gone from clay tablets to stone discs. Now that's what I call a technological advance!

[Math Impaired]

"There's one born every minute" and "A fool and his money are son parted" should be the first information a purchaser saves onto this.

[Eileen Souza]

This is really fascinating. While we wait for the price of recording to drop, we can use archival gold discs (guaranteed for 300 years). They can be recorded using current recorders.

[Dae Powell]

I've only begun to understand carbon dating, which determines the length of time in the past. How in the world have they determined the length of time these will endure in the FUTURE?? I still have some old 78 rpm records that play quite well, but will they play in the future? I dunno.

Happy Dae·
http://ShoeStringGenealogy.com

[Mitch Mackrory]

I think this is interesting. My concern remains with a current drive's ability to read the media. If we had a similar media product on VHS just 10 years ago, the data would be close to being unreadable already. What we need is either long life media AND drives or we need to maintain the ability to upgrade all our data as media and drives evolve and he older ones die.

[Dick Eastman]

---> we can use archival gold discs (guaranteed for 300 years).

Don't count on it. The article at http://www.mscience.com/faq53.html points out that such claims are exaggerated. To be sure, the gold layer in the CD might last 300 years but the other layers in the disk will deteriorate much faster, leaving the disk useless within a very few years.

The home page of the company that produces the new 1,000-year disks states, "When information burned on their DVDs began to disappear, manufacturers assumed the problem was due to the silver reflective back becoming tarnished, so Gold DVDs were introduced because gold doesn’t tarnish. Now the Gold DVDs are degrading as fast as the silver ones. The problem turned out to be the fading of the laser-sensitive ink in the sandwich layer between the clear plastic and the reflective surface."

[RJ Gowan]

I've read in many places that CD/DVD technology is obsolete. Smaller disks, higher capacities, faster data transfer and longer life expectancies are needed if this technology is to survive. We've heard of 50GB or higher optical disks being developed but where are they?

If I can buy a 32GB SD flash card for under $100 (and smaller capacities at lower $/DB rate) and a USB card reader/writer for under $5, why would I spend $150 for 5 DVDs (23.5GB)to be mailed to me. Cost is similar for external HDDs with 20 to 40 times the capacity.

Similarly, they are competing with online storage - some providers offering unlimited storage for small cost.

Don't get me wrong - I still use CD/DVD - and still like to have several backup copies in my possession, but I can't see Cranberry making a go of this. They charge $90/year to make and store 25 DVDs in their "vault" - they should provide online storage free with purchase of disks. Might be worth considering then.

[Jimini ty]

I hate this - I back up regularly. But programs change, operating systems change, and ba-ba-boom all your data accumulated over decades of research and "inputting" is dead in the water. I might as well not
do it; just make sure I have the original records, or transcripts thereof. Paper lasts 1000s of years.

[Holly Hendricks]

I can't help but wonder how they tested the longevity of their media - it sounds somewhat conjectural without "millenial QA"!

I think combining an automated online backup service with discs, thumb drives, and a large format backup disc at home addresses storing important data in multiple formats and locations. I don't think there is a great deal we can do to guarantee the longevity and usefulness of "work in progress" after our own lives, unless there is someone who is willing to inherit it.

I think much more genealogical data is lost due to family members not knowing what to do with it after the genealogist passes on. I don't publish my whole tree to the internet, but I do publish any well-sourced research that breaks new ground to surname interest group sites, hoping that it will be picked up by others who share my interest. I also provide paper or online copies to family members who care about it, always with sources.

I have a hard time sharing conjectural data combined with well-sourced data (the story of my research!) as I have seen the conjectural material repeated as fact, but at least it's then available as a research starting point. As I get older, I realize that many of the useful old genealogies and local histories are no better than that.

[Tennessee Tuxedo]

So if "Prerecorded disks manufactured in a factory will last quite a bit longer than the disks you record at home, perhaps 10 to 25 years" all of our music CDs should start becoming unreadable in the very near future.

Music CDs starting coming out in 1982 and I'm sure that many of your readers have CDs that are 20-25years old, at the upper range of your time frame for usability. Why haven't we heard a great hue and cry that all of these CDs can no longer be played?

[Tennessee Tuxedo]

I decided to do a little research, so I pulled out a bunch of CDs that I bought in the 1980s and I can definitely report that Dick is absolutely correct about the effects of age on CDs.

With a few exceptions, the music I bought in the 1980s does not sound as good today as I thought it did when I bought it.

[Ed Comer]

I have CD-R CDs that I burned in 1996 that read as well as the day they were made - 10+ years later. The two year lifespan story reminds me of JiffyLube's self serving recommendation of oil changes every 3,000 miles when my car's manual recommends every 5,000 miles. My experience makes me very suspect of the stated short life of a properly burned CD-R. It may not be forever, and it might not even be 20 years, but it is certainly longer than stated by Cranberry LLC.

[Joe Beaulaurier, Cranberry]

Hi Dick and everyone,

Thank you Dick for spreading the the word and providing safe and sane advice regarding DVD longevity.

A couple items of interest regarding the DiamonDisc and your current CD/DVD collections:

1) Master CDs and DVDs (mass produced music albums, movies, etc.) are created using an entirely different method than the CDs and DVDs that you burned yourself. As a result the mass produced media lasts a lot longer since it lacks the fail points CD-Rs and DVD-Rs have.
2) As with anything, some will under-perform and others will out-perform average expectations. Just as there are winners every day in Vegas. Are you willing to gamble with your most precious files?
3) The price of buying a DiamonDisc Writer is no longer $5000. You no longer have to buy 150 discs with the writer. The Writer can now be purchased unbundled for $1499. See the details at http://bit.ly/19lOWf.