CD/DVD archiving standards

I’m in the process of archiving my cd/dvd collection (mostly data and games disks). I have really old disks that date back from 1990, which I am afraid they will start degrading. I’m currently using CloneCD with all error skipping options disabled, but I’m not sure if the output that this application generates is some kind of proprietary code or not. I’ve noticed that there is no options to choose from a different image format, like ISO, so I’m starting to think that using CloneCD isn’t a great idea at all.

Which application would you suggest me to use taking into account that I want to preserve the quality of the copy?

Software won’t ensure this. You should switch to use blank blueray disk as they are much more durable.

If your data is absolutely critical, then you may want to invest into m-disks.

Sounds interesting, but what I’m really doing is copying my old CDs/DVDs into my computers SSD.

Makemkv and handbrake. I ripped to an iso with makemkv and then transcoded to h264 in an mkv container with handbrake. I store the iso in my backup pool and hold the mkvs on my streaming server.

Alright, what about data disks? Like old games.

ISOs are the most reliable method to archive DVDs. Unfortunately they take up a lot of space.
You can use dd under Unix to create an ISO image. Works great for me.
For movies that method works as well but isn’t ideal if you want to save some disk space. I also recommend handbrake for mkv conversion.

I did an archive to SSD project last year and was told about M-Disc. SSD’s and thumb drives grow microscopic hairs that short circuit the data after about 25 years.

M-Disc is a DVD - BluRay format that uses a form of stone (instead of aluminum) to store the data. As far as I know it is the longest lasting media available to mere mortals. Over 1,000 years

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