I just noticed that my desktop still has a DVD-RW in it that I never used.. which led me to think, I've got here like 5 DVD-RW's as well as 5 CD-RW's, but I never use them. Are there still any uses for them? Long-term backup storage for example? I've heard somewhere that data rot can happen over the course of a few years.. but would it really be a problem? I mean I've had these for over a year already and they look healthy to me. That said, they've never been used and just sat on the top of my desk in their enclosures all the time.

FWIW, I'm having 10TB of storage (as well as some other smaller stuff here and there.. maybe 500GB or so) in various hosts and 3 mirrors, so the need for backups is already fulfilled.. it's merely a curiosity of mine as in "ah, I still have these things huh".. so yeah.

I think that I've bought these DVD's for something like €6 for 5 pieces in a local store that doesn't specialize in this sort of thing, so I'm fairly certain that I could get them for cheaper elsewhere.. think the likes of AliExpress etc. Would they be a viable technology to maybe still invest in over hard drives for long-term storage purposes, considering that the cost of a hard drive these days is only €50 for 1TB? But I guess that tapes would be better for this purpose, no?

@Linux what are your thoughts on this?

My school computer's also have DVD-RW and the onlyuse I had for them was making a python script that opened and closed randomly, I guess it became really annoying to the student who sat there next class.

@JKyll I think that the reason that I bought these was a similar one... Well in terms of school PC at least. I think that my laptop was confiscated at the time and I had to look something up.. but the school PC's were infested to the brim with malware. So I tried to boot up my trusty Arch USB stick (I think that at the time I had that custom pentest box with OpenBox WM on USB) but the ancient piece of shit didn't support USB boot. So I figured that maybe I could chainload from a Linux DVD into the flash drive. It didn't work out as expected and I ended up having to report the issue to the (completely incompetent) IT chaps there and use another PC to do my work.. Oh well.

I enjoy fixing old IBM computers. So keeping functional CD/DVD drives around is important. Other than boot, they're useless, everything can be done with virtual images.
This week I had to image a boot diskette, the exe didn't even worked in xp. Used a real one, not the plastic USB thingies 🤣
Also keep old smaller pens, most older hardware is finicky with their sizes and geometry.

@nbamaral Thanks for the suggestion! Legacy hardware is a great reason to keep these around and refresh them in a timely manner when they contain data. As for the USB sticks, the ones that I've got around right now (one SanDisk USB 3.0 stick that I'm currently using as a rootfs for my laptop because I needed its SSD somewhere else as well as some flat USB 2.0 sticks) are quite valuable indeed, especially the DM sticks that I got earlier in a promotion (€4 or so.. quite amazing).. all aluminium, completely USB-size except for a little enlargement on its butt to make the keychain ring hole more sturdy. Oh and a USB 2.0 stick that's serving as a LUKS-encrypted digital keychain on its physical counterpart.

I vividly remember the machines that I had to service which had only like 2 USB ports jammed right next to each other though.. geometry is a pain in those indeed.

Nowadays I've got a bare USB connector for that on which I soldered some 18 and 28AWG wires for the power and data lines respectively.. essentially it's a (skookum AF) extension cord, except that the female end has 2 connectors (it's been primarily built to charge stuff, like my (RIP) Nexus phone as well as my headset while I'm using them - headset uses only power lines so it can tap off of the same port no problem). Either way, I can solder my way around that.. but yeah back when I couldn't it was such a pain in the ass when I had only sticks with bulky enclosures. Definitely something to remember.

The dvd drive on my thinkpad made funny noices like 2 years ago, so I took it out. About a month ago, while cleaning up, I threw out all the old (empty) dvds... Since I didn't use them in two years, I thought tgey could go.

As far as I know, DVD's should be fine for a few years as storage, but in a few year the challenge would probably be to find a dvd drive ;)

I actually dont have an answer to this

I heard you can build balloon-exploding lasers with the dvd laser, which I would say quite worth throwing one (or a couple) away 😉
And taking into account you like DIY electronics, you might be interested.

CD-Roms are still important... They are good cup holders.