Fu... fungi?

[C. Cecil Ivanish]

Yeah, got one after quite a while.
I won't comment, just C&P (and appropriately edit for privacy reasons) an e-mail we got.
It is about a... piece of software (OK, a videogame) sold on CDs. We support the end product.
-------
Hello, I wonder who I can talk about [company] [European country]. I bought an original Xbox 360 game ([name of game]) and it is being eaten by fungi ... Please know that this is very annoying to me. I wonder, what should I do? Who should I contact? Greetings.

[Crossbow]

Afraid so. I have no idea how common it is, but it DOES exist.
http://www.ibiblio.org/archives-arch.../msg16932.html

[RetailWorkhorse]

Okay, that explains what has happened to a whole LOT of my CDs....

[Crossbow]

Okay, that explains what has happened to a whole LOT of my CDs....

You wouldn't happen to have pics, would you? I'd be curious to see what it looks like....

[Chazzie]

One of my most important CDs got destroyed in this manner. My room in my old house was connected to the attic and had no insulation whatsoever, so it was not uncommon to have temperatures in there soar up to 110+ and moreso in the attic if there wasn't air conditioning. (I used to duct tape the attic door in hopes of keeping the heat in there. Within half an hour the tape melted and fell off.) As a result of the humidity and the CD not being stored in a proper case, the cd ended up covered in these weird gray speckles. When tried, it wouldn't run. It went from being a perfectly clean CD to looking like this:

http://sio.midco.net/cnlson2/cdmold.jpg

[Crossbow]

One of my most important CDs got destroyed in this manner. My room in my old house was connected to the attic and had no insulation whatsoever, so it was not uncommon to have temperatures in there soar up to 110+ and moreso in the attic if there wasn't air conditioning. (I used to duct tape the attic door in hopes of keeping the heat in there. Within half an hour the tape melted and fell off.) As a result of the humidity and the CD not being stored in a proper case, the cd ended up covered in these weird gray speckles. When tried, it wouldn't run. It went from being a perfectly clean CD to looking like this:

http://sio.midco.net/cnlson2/cdmold.jpg

Thanks. Were the speckles on the outside surface, or inside in the actual data layer?

[RetailWorkhorse]

http://sio.midco.net/cnlson2/cdmold.jpg

That's what mine looks like. It's inside, not outside (I tried cleaning and buffing the CD to make sure).

[telecom_goddess]

what the shit....I never heard of this before.

[Andara Bledin]

And this, my friends, is why it's suggested to keep all media stored in cool and dry environments. And why it's a good idea to have extra copies of vital data stored on another medium entirely, eg one copy on CDs/DVDs and another on a separate storage drive.

Here's a link to what it looks like when spores eat your data:
http://tierra.rediris.es/pro/CD-fungi/CD-fungi.JPG

^-.-^

[UncleImpy]

I have to echo Telecom Goddess - I have never heard of this before - that's so freaky! Glad I live in the upper part of the States now...

[zombiequeen]

I had some cd's with those funny grey spots on them!
When we used to get those free internet cd's in the mail my mum gave them to my friend and I to have in our clubhouse as coasters/whatever else we did with them.
A couple got the spiral kind of fungus, the rest got either grey spots or the silver layer just faded and disappeared.

[phoenixv07]

Here's a link to what it looks like when spores eat your data:
http://tierra.rediris.es/pro/CD-fungi/CD-fungi.JPG

^-.-^

That's actually really rather pretty. It's a very ... ornate pattern.

Is it weird that I apparently find mold pretty?

[telecom_goddess]

That's actually really rather pretty. It's a very ... ornate pattern.

Is it weird that I apparently find mold pretty?

In a word...yes

[MoonCat]

That's actually really rather pretty. It's a very ... ornate pattern.

Is it weird that I apparently find mold pretty?

I thought so, too. Pretty but scary....

Now I do NOT know where to put my CD's. It was 95 degrees today and the humidity for the last few days has been unbelievably horrible. There's no where in the house where it isn't hot and damp.

[Andara Bledin]

Oh, the spirally bits from the spores is actually rather attractive. A shame it's also quite destructive.

^-.-^