I recently found some CDs and DVDs that I backed files up on 17 years ago. Everything copied across no problem - they were as good as the day I burned them.
I'd say use them for data!
this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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If you have a car with a CD player, I’d recommend burning some CDs. It’s so refreshing having a small collection of banger CDs to choose from. Not to mention that you can insert and eject without being too distracted.
Burn AOL free trial discs and leave them here and there
I used to pirate movies my older neighbour wanted to see and burn them on blank DVDs because she felt way more comfortable having discs than streaming. That could be an option if you have a tech-averse person in your life you care about.
She had a bunch of empty cases too, and would make customer covers for each movie with a sharpie and a piece of paper.
Large scale exterior wall art.
Put at least one of them in a microwave.
Pretty neat light show!
Technically, kind of, you are... burning the disk, in a sense, lol.
Burn porn or GoG games onto them and leave them in random bushes in various public parks and gardens
I could see Beavis and Butthead doing this neeheh heh
Hahahahaa
You... I have no words
I like your style, but I guess both would get you into legal trouble.
Only if you get caught
I like to burn movies and shows to play on my CRT. It feels a bit more authentic than streaming.
From personal experience, depending on how old they are, use them as coasters.
With very few exceptions, consumer grade optical media is really only good for sharing files.
Back in the 2000’s I had been using them to store backups of files. Found out the hard way that that was not a suitable use for them when I had a hard drive fail. Disk rot is a bitch if you’re not expecting it.
That said, if you and your family still have CD players, you might think about making them mix CDs. It’s also possible to burn your archived movies or tv shows onto them in DVD or Video-CD formats. I expect most DVD players can still read the Video CD format.
I’ve turned some into fidget spinners with hot glue and marbles.
If you've got a lot of content on a Steam account, you can make physical install discs
Sega Dreamcast games
I use them as coasters for drinks.
But Blanks are still useful, I will literally never run out of unusable driver CDs, scratched CD-Rs, AOL cover discs, failed DVD burns, etc ...
also floppy discs don't shed foil flakes when they get wet, just superior coasters.
I would say family photos for archival.
They will outlast your HDD nd SSDs
Normal DVDs are not good for archival. Cheap ones can degrade in less than 10 years. You want to get the M-disc ones for long term storage.
VS HDD seems a bit unlikely. The typical cheap optical media isn't designed or meant for long term archival. There are more expensive types that are meant for long term storage but I'm pretty sure that's not what OP is talking about, especially if it's just random blank discs from thrift stores, etc.
But to your point even cheap optical media might outlast SSDs since those tend to lose their saved data if stored unpowered for x years.
even cheap optical media might outlast SSDs since those tend to lose their saved data if stored unpowered for x years.
I wasn't aware of this. Would you happen to have any handy links where I could read more?
It depends.
Modern SSDs come in various types. Ones that store multiple bits per cell, do so by using multiple charge levels to represent multiple bits. Instead of one and zero, there can for instance be four different charge levels to represent 00, 01, 10, and 11, allowing a single cell to store two bits.
That makes a cell much more sensitive, since a smaller change in the charge is required to change the stored value. As opposed to an SLC cell which would simply be empty or charged depending on whether it's storing a 1 or a 0.
Good SLC nand should be able to store stuff for a decade just fine, if not longer. This is what'll be in any decent USB drive, as they're intended to spend the vast majority of their time unpowered.
QLC nand uses 16 different charge levels to store 4 bits per cell. That means a 1/16 change in charge would start corrupting data. PLC is in development, and will use 32 levels to store 5 bits. This'll be in your budget multi-terabyte SSDs.
Temperature also plays a role. The nand cells will lose charge at different rates at different temperatures.
You'll want to consult the specs of whatever drive your looking at. The variance is huge. From some drives needing a firmware level "data-refresh" that's constantly keeping the data from disappearing (people seeing bit-rot was a problem with some drives back when TLC first became common), to stuff that's fine for decades.
That's a coinflip.
The HDDs in my dads home server have outlasted the CDs he burned back in the day.
That's not to say HDDs are a safe option, either. You won't know whether a drive is going to last a year or ten until it fails.
As mentioned before, disks are great for archiving files for long-term storage, so they eould work for that. You could also see if you have any non-techie freinds who want/need a cd or two burned (though not likely, still possible).Alternatively there are quite a few crafts you could try.
Ordinary discs are terrible for long term storage. You need to use special discs designed to resist disc rot, like M-disc or Sony's ODA. It wouldnt trust random discs more than 10 years from manufacturing