Archival Storage

The article below is from the latest Rootsweb Review. My new computer didn't have a floppy drive and much of my data and photos is on diskettes. I bought an external floppy drive, but haven't learned how to hook it up and transfer the info to the CDs. Now I wonder if it wouldn't do any good to transfer my info to CDs. Does anyone think memory sticks are better?

Emilie
Port Orchard, WA --

More on Archival CDs
By Ron Mesnard

Last edition's suggestion on buying archival quality CDs made of 24k
gold (rather than with dyes) was both accurate and useful. Many
persons believe once their valuable data is on a CD it will be good
forever; however, it will not.

Old-style CDs that burned pits on metal foil to record the data have
the best life. I have gold foil CDs that are about ten years old that
read fine the last time I accessed one. I also have eight- to
nine-year-old new-style disks that read fine. The newer media burns
much faster and is much cheaper. If you are using non-archival-quality
CDs, remember that the dye used for normal CDs and DVDs is photo
sensitive. Any light, but especially direct sunlight, can dramatically
age the dye on a disk. Keep this in mind when you use and store your
disks. One other advantage of the foil disks is that if they get too
scratched or the plastic clouds with age making them unreadable, they
can be resurfaced. I do not think this helps a normal CD-R.

My experience with CDR-Ws suggests to me that they are a great idea
that never worked out. Use memory sticks instead. They are as reliable
as the CDR-Ws are not.