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CD-RW (Compact Disc-Rewritable) is a digital optical disc storage format introduced by Ricoh in 1997. [1] A CD-RW compact disc (CD-RWs) can be written, read, erased, and re-written. CD-RWs, as opposed to CDs, require specialized readers that have sensitive laser optics.
The following are examples of optical storage media excluded from this article: Holographic data storage - either still in development, or available but generally only encountered in niche usage as of 2007. Laserdisc - not used for recordable data storage in the computing world, although recordable formats did exist briefly.
Dye based optical media should not be solely relied on to archive valuable data. MAM-A claims a life of 300 years on their archival gold CD-R and 100 years for gold DVDs. Good alternatives would be to additionally backup one's media using other media technologies and/or investing in non-volatile memory technologies. [11]
Media technologies vary, for example, M-DISC media uses a rock-like layer to retain data for longer than conventional recordable media. While being read-only compatible with existing DVD and Blu-ray drives, M-DISC media can only be written to using a stronger laser specifically made for this purpose, which is built into fewer optical drive models.
DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are a collection of optical disc formats that can be written to by a DVD recorder and by computers using a DVD writer. The "recordable" discs are write-once read-many (WORM) media, where as "rewritable" discs are able to be erased and rewritten.
Rewritable media is typically used in archive applications where the stability and longevity of optical media are important, but archive records change on a relatively frequent or discretionary basis. Rewritable media is typically used in archive environments where data needs to be deleted or media capacity re-used. True write once
Various forms of optical media, mostly disk form, competed with magnetic recording through most of the 1960s and 70s, but never became widely used. It was the introduction of semiconductor lasers that provided the technology needed to make optical storage more practical in both storage density and cost terms.
For example, many Maxell DVDs are made by Ritek or CMC magnetics. Many companies use equipment from Singulus Technologies. This list includes both CD, DVD and Blu-ray recordable and rewritable media manufacturers (like Ritek), and disc replicators (companies that replicate discs with pre-recorded content, like Sony DADC).