CD Wallets - Watch Out!

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers
#1

Hey guys,

Been a while since I posted here but I thought i’d leave a word of warning to people storing discs in cheap CD wallets… I’ve always been careful when it comes to back ups - handling discs, choosing quality media etc… and I never saw this one coming!

Basically, I store all my discs in 96 capacity CD wallets. The £ store had a load in cheap a couple of years back so I bought some from there… They were ok, but I noticed they bulged out a bit and were tight when you filled them up to full capacity. I thought nothing of it since the wallets were dirt cheap to replace, but 3 years later I’m paying the price…

I’ve scanned through a few discs and they’ve appeared to warp! They’re all scratch free, but they either fail to read a TOC at all or CRC out in a a few minutes. Some are pressed, others are blank media (various HQ brands - TY, verbatim, MMC etc…) and they all have the same symptoms.

It must be that the tight squeeze inside has put pressure on the discs and bent them out of shapeslightly. Luckily a lot the data is replaceable but it’s gonna take a lot of time :frowning: So, if any of you guys have cheap wallets are poorly made with too many sheets, DON’T FILL THEM. Spread them out to a couple of wallets instead :slight_smile:

I have discs I burnt 10 years ago that still read ok, so I figured wallets are the safest storage way for my discs. Does anyone here use anything different that’s space efficient?

Dawson

#2

I just use cake boxes. They don’t have the random access of a wallet storage system, but they are cheap, space efficient, non-contact & clean and don’t outgas.

#3

i store my discs in the aluminum cd/dvd case. it is always like the cd wallet that can upto 1000 dvds. it is hard case with DIY Sleeves

#4

Oh wow - I never considered the fact that the CD cases would warp my CD’s. Thank you for the advice. I’ve been very careful to back up stuff, but if the CD is no good - I’m screwed. Thanks!

#5

[[QUOTE=BluDChyLD;2291190]

Basically, I store all my discs in 96 capacity CD wallets. The £ store had a load in cheap a couple of years back so I bought some from there… They were ok, but I noticed they bulged out a bit and were tight when you filled them up to full capacity. I thought nothing of it since the wallets were dirt cheap to replace, but 3 years later I’m paying the price…

I’ve scanned through a few discs and they’ve appeared to warp! They’re all scratch free, but they either fail to read a TOC at all or CRC out in a a few minutes. Some are pressed, others are blank media (various HQ brands - TY, verbatim, MMC etc…) and they all have the same symptoms.

It must be that the tight squeeze inside has put pressure on the discs and bent them out of shapeslightly. Luckily a lot the data is replaceable but it’s gonna take a lot of time :frowning: So, if any of you guys have cheap wallets are poorly made with too many sheets, DON’T FILL THEM. Spread them out to a couple of wallets instead :)[/QUOTE]

I know it might sound heretical, but is warping the only possible explanation?

I have often seen the warning not to use “cheap” wallets (without a mention of how they might be different from “expensive” ones), but has anyone actually seen or measured warping?

If the wallet is tightly filled, doesn’t that mean that the discs are stacked up against each other, as on a cake-box spindle, and are thus actually less likely to warp, at least some of those toward the middle?

I have recently been considering a sleeve case such as the following: [URL=“http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/poly-case-24-disc-white-multi-pack”]http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/poly-case-24-disc-white-multi-pack](http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/poly-case-24-disc-white-multi-pack).
I am not so concerned about scratching since I will be using these for archive backups and won’t be accessing them regularly. (Also, I have read some recent posts here that say that scratching does not necessarily occur with this type of sleeve.)

Anyone using these? Are they likely to cause warping?

Thank you,

David

#6

The last wallets I bought had too many pages! They were only supposed to fit 96 disks but would take 128. Of course, if you loaded that many they didn’t close.

I solved the problem by ignoring inner pages on each half of the wallet so that I was only storing 96 discs.