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AMERICAN FORK -- Most of us have photographs, documents and music that we wish we could keep forever. Unfortunately, DVDs eventually fail, and data back-up can be expensive and difficult to manage. But a homegrown Utah company recently launched a solution that lasts.
It is called Millenniata and they produce the M-Disc. On a standard DVD, the data is written on a reflective layer on the disk. With the M-Disc, the data is actually etched into the disc itself. The company earned praise for the product at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week.
They call the M-Disc "the new standard in digital storage."
"Now you can keep your data for a long, long time and not have to worry about managing it, or transferring it from one media to another," said
The start-up is a BYU spin-off based in American Fork, with just 12 employees. Their technology creates a very enduring disc.
"So, rather than manipulating the dye layer, which is what happens today, we are actually etching, or engraving into the stone layer within the disc," Decker said. "So, we're making a permanent change into a hard substance."
The disc can take a real beating, unless you bend it sideways in which case it will will snap. Because the dyes and reflective layers have been removed, you can actually see right through it.
"You can use it to keep your family photos, to keep your family records, your geneology records," Decker said. Or your music and business records. Any kind of data at all that you would like to be permanent. Companies can use the M-Disc for permanent file backup and archives. You can use it use anytime, for generations, without losing data.
Millenniata earned the "Visionary Product of the Year" award at the Consumer Electronics Show. The company now partners with LG Data Storage to make M-Disc compatible DVD drives and disc writers, and that availability will grow.
You can buy the discs in packs of 5, 10, and 25 on their website, for $3 a disc, and you'll start to see the M-Disc in stores soon.
"You have control over your data, and it's long term. It's not something that's going to disappear and go away on you," Decker said.
