We've all seen Optical Discs like DVD, CD and Blu-ray during our childhood. We used to get a lot of software, movies, games and music in the form of discs. Some of us used it as a frisbee while some of us used to use the discs as a wheel. Despite all this damage, some parts of the disc will be still readable. If you try this with a hard disk, it would stop working the second you drop it.
What makes these discs so special? Why do they even exist in 2023? Let's find out.
Pros
Cost
Optical Media is very very cheap. The discs cost very less and are easily available. A CD costs about $0.5. DVD costs a bit more than that, still cheap whereas Blu-ray costs about $47 for 25 discs. Overall, its very cheap and reliable.
Longevity
An average burned CD or DVD lasts anywhere between 2 to 100 years! Yes, they can last upto 100 years if you take good care of your discs. This means that you can store your discs in a corner and not worry too much about them for years.
Low Maintenance
Optical Discs don't need a lot of maintenance. You just have to store them in a dry and cold place and they'll remain good for years. Whereas Hard Drives lose the data after a decade if its not used.
Low Failure Rates
Since an Optical Disc doesn't have any moving parts, it's less prone to failures. However, the Disc may not work completely if there's some issue while burning data into the Disc so care needs to be taken.
Resistance to Solar Storms
Since I'm an overthinker, I've overthinked a lot about optical discs and also researched a lot about Solar Storms and how they affect electronics. All forms of storage media are not safe from solar storms except optical discs because the data on them is stored by making pits onto the surface of the disc rather than using electricity or magnetic plates to store data.
Compact
Since Discs are flat and thin, they can fit on top of each other easily and can be stored in a spindle if you have too many discs. They occupy very less storage.
Easy to Distribute
Since Discs are cheap and compact, it's easy to distribute the copies of the discs easily without much hassle when compared to other forms of media.
Cons
Prone to Scratches
Since Optical Discs have no shell to protect the data layer, they're often prone to scratches. Too many scratches may corrupt the data layer and the data will be inaccessible.
Inability to Use Multiple Discs at Once
Since an Optical Drive can only accept one disc at a time, you can't use multiple discs at once like you can do with flash drives or hard drives.
Limited Storage
CDs come with only 700mb of storage and that's nowhere enough to store huge files. Sure there are Blu ray discs if you want more storage but blu ray players are very expensive
Expensive Blu Ray Players
Blu Ray players are still very costly even though they came out over a decade ago. It's a good investment if you're looking for a good and cheap form of storage.
Slow Read and Write Speed
Optical Discs have a very slow read and write speed. Slower than a snail. It makes it extremely frustrating to burn data onto the disc when you're dealing with bigger files.
My thoughts
Overall, Optical Discs are a pretty good option if you're looking for a long term, low maintenance and low cost form of backup, which however, comes with its own set of limitations.