All of my Sony CDQ-74CN blanks went bad!
 

I have(had) about 20 blank CDQ-74Ns (in cases) that have been sitting on my shelf for a few years. I went to burn a disc yesterday and I noticed that the first one I tried had gone bad - it almost looks like the dye froze/melt. The surface has that "jack frost" look about it, but it as even spread to the clear plastic hub in the center of the disc.

So I grabbed another, and another...they were ALL bad! They have not been in too harsh of an envronmet, just sitting on my shelf in my appt, 1/2 stored horizontally, 1/2 vertically. Also, I had a few older CDQ-74BNs stored in the same location, one of which had a cloudy surface and the rest that look fine. I burned another dics from this same batch about a month ago and it was fine. I am possitve my appt has not gotten that cold.

The code on the back of the case is: 2-449-105-14 and it says "Made in Japan"

Has anyone seen this before? I fear for all of my data that I have backed up onto these "premium" quality discs.

If anyone wants a picture, I can try and post one later.

-Andrew

Wow - this is scary. I've got some of these myself. Has anyone had this problem with any other brands?

Sony discs are great... I agree, but if you go to the manufacturer's website, they'll have some more information about them usually..
I went to HP's website to check on my cd-rw...
There's 2 different year limits.
One is that if it has been burned, it was last 10 years.
And the other if it has not been burned, it was last 3 years or something.
So I'm guessin after a couple years, the dye being untouched will eventually fade off...