M-DISC: The DVD/Blu-ray discs that claim to last 1000 years
M-DISC – DVD/Blu-ray compatible discs that may last up to 1000 years
M-DISC is a write-once optical disc technology introduced in 2009 by Millenniata, Inc., designed for archival longevity. Unlike standard discs that use organic dyes, M-DISC uses a glassy carbon data layer that is inert to oxidation and has a melting point up to 1000°C. Available in DVD and Blu-ray formats, M-DISC claims a lifespan of up to 1000 years under proper storage. The technology has been tested by the US Department of Defense and French LNE, and is listed by NIST as an acceptable archival format for 100+ years. Despite Millenniata's bankruptcy in 2016, M-DISC continues to be manufactured by Verbatim and Ritek, and is used by datahoarders and the state of Utah for cold storage.
The glassy carbon layers, in theory if preserved correctly in an environment like a salt mine, could store the data for over 10,000 years before going outside of readable specifications.
- mapontosevenths
Verbatim, who owns M-Disc, doesn't even manufacture discs anymore. They just slap their brand on other peoples discs.
The discs sold as M-Discs now are actually just MABL BD-R's. They used to have a 'stone' data layer. Now they use a titanium metal data layer. MABL discs were always designed to last for about 100 years, and are orders of magnitude cheaper.
100 years is long enough, and 1000 years was always a wild-ass theoretical abstraction. The point is that you'll be dead before your disc is. If the next generation cares and drives are still available they can copy it to a new source.
These same discs are sold with a "Guarantee" as archival discs that are tested with heat/stress to last that 100 years, but any MABL disc really should,and they're much cheaper if you just get regular MABL discs. I think Pioneer is one of the big brands making the archival discs, or at least branding them. I last had to import mine from Japan. If you check the disc ID though, you'll see that archival discs are literally the same disc you can by cheaper without that label.
Some M-Discs still have a proprietary disc label, but my understanding is that even those just come off the same lines.
Some reading:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/yu4j1u/psa_ver...
https://blu-raydisc.info/licensee-list/discmanuid-licenseeli... (search for verbatim and note the manufacturer column)
- noinsight
The drives to read them (Blu-rays) will be the problem. Pioneer stopped manufacturing them in 2024, only LG drives are available now.
Coincidentally I just bought one, they’ve doubled in price now recently.
Also bought some M-Discs to try. They’re half the price in Japan (Amazon) compared to Germany.
- artmanja111
~20 years ago, I used to back all of my stuff up on whatever brand of DVD-R was cheapest at Best Buy. I think it was usually TDK. I figured I’d get around the problem of dye degradation by re-burning the discs every few years.
That, of course, didn’t actually happen. However, I had the same files backed up on a WD MyBook of the same vintage, which was properly parked and stored in an antistatic bag.
The stuff sat in a storage locker — the DVD-Rs in a binder, and the MyBook in its original packaging — for close to two decades.
I finally pulled it all out recently to see what was still recoverable. I figured the discs probably wouldn’t work, but the MyBook would be fine.
In fact, it was exactly the opposite. Every disc read perfectly, but the MyBook wouldn’t even initalize. Ping-ping-ping-thunk.
It’s amazing how unpredictable storage devices can be.
- rietta
I am working an a fictional world set 1800 years in the future. A whole subplot is the digital resurrection of 1990s Microsoft Encarta encylopedia which was the first time in a millennia they had a glimpse into this time beyond fragmentary evidence from printed materials. In the timeline of the novel, the disks had been discovered 300 years prior but no one knew how to read them and the general degradation of the substrates. Then 150 years before a graduate student figured out how to use imaging from multiple different disks and piece together to get an entire rendering of the bit pattern. But it took only at the time of the narration that the breakthrough was made on how to decode and render the data in part because of "digital Rossetta stone discovery" found at a dig in North America encrusted in volcanic obsidian glass. Anyway, the professor protagonist ends up traveling in a post oil world by sail to Argentina as an invited guest in a highly interest lecture scene reminiscent of the Dead Sea scrolls discovery.
There is a lot of work to do, but I am actually intellectually interested in realistically understanding how the far future can deal with interpreting the digital dark ages that we currently live in now which are completely forgotten because the administrators stopped copying data one day.
- msephton
I have a few of these drives. They also rip discs very accurately. Bit-identical to my Plextor, at a fraction of the price. But sadly no ripping software offers these the verification logging that is required for redump approval.
- tim--
> Verbatim Japan claims that M-DISCs now use a titanium layer to prevent moisture ingression and to provide environmental stability
From what I understand, Verbatim no longer manufactures true M-DISC media. https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1i0ky6v/what_h...
It's all just MABL now.
- fenaer
I've looked into M-Disc several times, as a way to backup and archive my personal and family data over the course of my lifetime (and possibly the next generation).
The relative obscurity of the format, the drama around Verbatim's acquisition and the dwindling options for a Blu-Ray player ultimately keep me from investing in it.
Honestly, I'd love a shelf-stable storage mechanism that isn't tape.
- numpad0
I wonder why every types of discs seem to be entering a de facto deprecated state over the last ~10 years, especially inorganic types are. Is it simply because everyone's on Netflix? Or could it be environmental/material cost issues?
I believe these discs are made by transferring materials by vaporizing them in a series of big vacuum chambers, maybe those materials are toxic and/or China dominated and nobody wants to deal with them anymore?