We love the Sharpies here at Street Tech Labs; black Sharpies that make us hallucinate on the fumes every time we use them to label our CDs, DVDs, and our interns (it’s so hard to keep them all straight). But that permanent jet-black ink and head-lightening marker aroma may come at a price: the long-term survivability of your disc-based media (oh, and maybe blood poisoning of the interns).
According to a piece on the Media Sciences website, solvent-based markers (like our beloved Sharpies) are the riskiest to use, as the solvent can lead to data degradation. Water-based markers are better. The best thing to do is to write on the plastic center ring of the disc. While some discs are designed to protect the readout surface from marker solvents, others aren’t, and it’s not always clear what kind of discs you have. Of course, we’re talking about long-term degradation, so this is only an issue if you’re looking at long-term storage. For most of us, just using water-based markers is good enough. Dang, we’re going to miss our Sharpie high. I think one of our interns needs a new “tattoo.”