DCC Archive FUNGUS ON CDS

Hello

I desperately need help to safeguard my CD collection from fungus attack.Collections that are 10 years of age shows signs of fungus/mould growth.How to clean this and possible protection against such growth.Any help is much appreciated.thanks in advance.

anand

 

Anand,

It's been a while since I've read about "CD rot" but let me try and remember my facts. When CD's were first manufactored there were sometimes very small hairline cracks in the plastic seal which caused oxygen to corrode the alluminum. As the years went on the problem became less and less because of better QC and methods. DCC "gold" discs are also fab because they are gold... This was a problem with laserdiscs too (laser-rot). I think your damaged CD's are beyond help but if you can still get the data off of them then make a clean CD-r backup. The key thing for keeping CD's healthy is to keep them clean (free of any scratches/fingerprints/chocolate ice cream/etc.) and always put them back in their safe (I meant case but I'll leave the slip for humor sake) after use. Just back up the dodgy looking ones and keep the rotting ones as a conversation piece...

All the best,

Todd

 

This is my experience:

In the mid to late 80's, many record companies were using a technology where the CD was sealed around the outer edge with a very thin layer of polycarbonate seal or similar. Some of them started to rot from the edges almost a year after medium handling. The majority of these scary discs were usually the 1st few discs the American plants took a crack at. German or JPN discs earlier still survive well, it seems. It only happens when the very thin layer or "seal" on the top side at the edges starts to weaken, and the edges of the CDs start to flake apart a bit, leaving what looks like rotting marks on the Cds. It's really the aluminum flake that's just missing from the disc it was sealed to originally. A few of my older Polygram CDs, WEA Cds, some Capitol/EMI discs did the same thing too, at varying degrees of rot.

The only discs I remember not rotting of that period were Sony CDs made by DADC and some Japanese imports stood up strong.

This has nothing to do with a fungi. It's about handling poorly made discs. My 1st copy of Neil Young's "Decade" exibited these kinds of problems, only on the 1st disc. I've since bought another copy, and I've noticed almost every one of the CD manufacturers have new and much better ways of making a disc in general. The newer discs of today won't flake off or out.

So the Backstreet Boys CDs will outlast 1st pressings of T.Rex's "Electric Warrior" on Reprise.

!!Gasp!!

Yes, just watch your old-stock Cds. It's still a rare occurance at the fact sometimes rot won't effect the Cds unless it reaches the actual digital data on the disc. For my Decade CD, the rot stopped right at the edge, any further, and "Helpless" would have been...well... helpless.

"Don't worry, be careful".