Burned disks are trash for longevity. I've had many CD-Rs that developed literal physical holes in the data layer or where the data layer simply flaked off after a few years.
I know this will be very much down to debate but I'm a great fan of USBs and external hard drives these days, their designs have come a very long way. I remember how horribly flimsy a lot of components and their connectors were back in the day with those gold teeth and they feel so solid now.
All nand flash based devices will die. Doesn't matter how gently you care for them, the electrons will slowly diffuse out of their little buckets and they will cease to function. As for when, according to the internet it's somewhere between 1 week and 40 years. I'm predicting the mask rom systems will outlast all of the nand flash systems - including disc based systems that use flash for their bios. Although when it starts happening, there will be a big market for bios replacements to rebuild the systems - but DS, 3DS and Switch games are going to turn into pumpkins.
Burned disks are trash for longevity. I've had many CD-Rs that developed literal physical holes in the data layer or where the data layer simply flaked off after a few years.
I know this will be very much down to debate but I'm a great fan of USBs and external hard drives these days, their designs have come a very long way. I remember how horribly flimsy a lot of components and their connectors were back in the day with those gold teeth and they feel so solid now.
All nand flash based devices will die. Doesn't matter how gently you care for them, the electrons will slowly diffuse out of their little buckets and they will cease to function. As for when, according to the internet it's somewhere between 1 week and 40 years. I'm predicting the mask rom systems will outlast all of the nand flash systems - including disc based systems that use flash for their bios. Although when it starts happening, there will be a big market for bios replacements to rebuild the systems - but DS, 3DS and Switch games are going to turn into pumpkins.