Taking Care of Your CDs

The growing use and popularity of digital gadgets such as Digicams and Handicams are generating a lot of data requiring an increase in storage capacity. CD-R is one of the best ways to take your data around. CD writers are cheap and CD-ROM drives (that read discs burned on CD writers) are ubiquitous. Best of all, an entire disc can be burned in a matter of minutes. CDs are not quite enough to accomplish a one-click backup of your entire hard drive but they can be very useful for carrying your documents around.

Like all other digital storage devices, CDs also need to be handled carefully so as to avoid data loss. Any sort of mishandling and physical damage can lead to corruption or complete data loss of the stored information.

The plus points of CD are that they are sturdy and last longer than most media. In addition to this, they are not affected by magnetic fields. As they do not use magnetic technology to store data they remain unharmed by x-ray machines in the airports.

However, like other storage media they can lose data too and hence require special care. Recordable CDs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs are more delicate than regular CDs and should be handled more carefully. Here is some information necessary for the right care of CDs:

1. Temperature: Store your CDs at room temperature. As they are made from plastic, exposure to direct sunlight or to temperatures higher than 48 degree Celsius can warp the CD rendering it useless.

2. Labelling: Avoid putting stickers, labels and tapes or writing with regular pens on the CDs. The misuse of label side can damage the data layer right under the top surface. Use soft, felt tip markers on the label side to write anything on the CD.

3. Contact: Be very careful while handling CDs. As their media is exposed they are very vulnerable to any wrong physical contact. Do not hold CDs by the rim with the fingers splayed out. It is very easy to drop a CD this way. Hold them by putting your thumb against the rim and one finger in the central hole. Even while taking the disc out of a player, catch your finger in the central hole first and then lift it out.

4. Dust and Dirt: Accumulation of dust and dirt can hamper the reading of a CD. Dirt and grit can scratch your CD and destroy your read and write head as well as all the other CDs subsequently played on it.

5. Moisture: Do not expose your CDs to liquids and humidity. Use only warm water to rinse them and then wipe them gently with a soft cloth. It is imperative to make sure that your CD is absolutely dry before you run it.

6. Flexibility: Bending a CD can be dangerous and can break the CD. It is made up of plastic and tends to shatter.

7. Cleaning: Do not use any solvents or harsh liquid detergents for cleaning as they can harm the plastic casing. Never rub the label side of a CD. This can cause more damage as the data is stored right under the label of the disc.

There are some real-life situations also that one is faced with while working with CDs. Here, we discuss some of them.

What if you drop something sticky on your CD? A sticky substance tends to settle in the grooves and running such a CD will make it stick to the innards of the drive. This can make all other discs run on the drive unplayable too.

If you spill something on the CD, then rinse it in clean lukewarm water. Wipe it in a straight motion from centre to the rim with a soft, lint-free cloth. Cleaning in circles can cause long scratches over a single section of the data track causing signal loss. Small scratches across many tracks can be handled by the error correcting capabilities of the drive.

People should not take out CDs that they have just played and lay them on a gritty surface like the top of a TV set. The sensitive side of the CD opposite to the labelled side gets scratched causing data loss. The sides of the CD get damaged when people push the tray in without making sure that the CD is in the centre. It pinches the sides and ruins the CD.

So take care of your CDs and they will take care of your data.