Vinpower M-DISC 4X DVD+R Plus R White Inkjet Printable Cake Box 25 Pack

The real expense in archiving data is the time it takes to record, so it pays to record on the most permanent media available. The modest extra cost is well worth it.Standard DVDs and CDs can fail in a few years because the thin metal coating on which the data is recorded corrodes over time, a phenomenon once called "laser rot". Gold disks from Delkin and Verbatim (and for a while Kodak) are good for decades at least and these M disks from Milleniata seem to be the current long-life champs, which accelerated tests suggest will be good for over 100 years. M disks record on a mineral coating that is chemically inert and resistant to scratches and other mechanical damage.Please note: I have edited this review to state that standard disks "can" fail in a few years, which they certainly can and do, and added the phrase "which accelerated tests suggest" will be good for over 100 years. No one knows in advance with absolute certainty the life of any storage medium and the results can be surprising. For example, we know with certainty that black-and-white motion picture film will last for over a century because world film archives maintain large libraries of films over 100 years old in fine condition. There are important qualifiers: the film must have been properly processed in the first place and carefully stored; of course movie film is easily scratched if improperly handled. It may seem odd to hear that as of today, the only permanent storage medium for digital theatrical movies is still black-and-white motion picture film.The proof of motion picture films's usefulness as a long term storage medium:

I bought two packs of 25 so I could make 40 m-disc DVD's of a family slideshow/video. My DVD label design was very color intensive and every disc came out perfectly---nice black blacks...rich, even colors...etc.. No problems with any of the DVD's themselves either. The movie played well on my Blu-Ray player and my PC. They should last an eternity.

Read by most DVD players. Seems to store pictures just fine. Even to the outer edges contrary to some reports. So far so good but someone else will have to report if the M-Disc makes the 1000 year mark. I just want it for another 40 years. No problems in shipping. Note: I tried to abort a write project because I forgot to label my disc but it started to write to the disc anyway before aborting. Just let it finish without the label. Now I have an expensive blank disc that I cannot use.

Good: Have yet to burn a coaster out of some 55 M-DISCs used to date. I obviously can't vouch for their durability, but the technology and the manufacturer's and Department of Defense's tests are compelling. At the very least I'm confident that these discs will last a lot longer than even premium standard DVD-Rs.Bad: Know that these discs are NOT 100% compatible with standard DVD drives. Both of my laptops (dual-layer DVD-RW / Blu-ray-R) have yet to successfully read a M-DISC, and only one of the three internal desktop drives I tested will read them reliably. On the other hand, both my DVD players (LG Blu-ray) read them without problems, as did a friend's external drive (Sony DVD-R, Blu-ray-R) I borrowed for testing, and also, as one would expect, the M-DISC burner itself.This is not by any means a deal-breaker. I can always plug in the burner when I need to read a disc, which won't be often. It IS, however, fair warning to make sure your discs will read on the devices you need to read them with before committing to M-DISC for storing important stuff.It's likely that M-DISC is a little ahead of the technology curve, and older drives just aren't up to the task. Fair enough; I'll just make sure that any new devices I buy are M-DISC compatible up front. Still, discovering that compatibility wasn't quite as robust as claimed for a disc I planned to use for archiving was a bit unsettling. Other than this, however, I'm satisfied with the product, and remain confident of its durability. Four stars for now; will award the fifth if and when these things rescue me from a crashed hard drive. ;)

Fails to be read on 3 of our computers. I bought a 'Samsung SE-506CB/RSBD 6X USB 2.0 Slim Blu-ray Writer External Drive (Black), M-Disc support' to write discs and that drive can read and write the m-discs. Could not read the disc with two different drive in our desktop, both Lite-on models, one iHBS212 bluray disk reader/writer and one iHAS422 DVD reader/writer. Both of these are updated to latest firmware levels. Also fails to read in a Lenovo W530 laptop and a Lenovo T420 laptop. I could read and boot from the m-discs on my Asus G75VW with a Hitachi-LG GT51N DVD writer.

great product!

Have had several disks write and verify fine (these need an M-disc capable burner). Disks are translucent dark grey so labelling with marker is almost impossible to read without the DVD on a white background. They need label patches.