30 years ago, moving was a huge ordeal for me. My music collection - that could now fit on a thumb drive - consisted of over a dozen milk crates full of LPs and half-a-dozen drawers of 45 records.

I converted most of that vinyl to Compact Disc (CD) during the 1990's, so imagine my shock to find out that my cherished music collection could now be rotting.

According to the folks at CoS.com, it's a phenomenon called "disc rot," a chemical process by which CDs begin to decay. The telltale signs of rot are small dark spots on the disc surface that can grow quite large overtime, eventually rendering the disc unplayable.

The fix? There isn't one. And it's not just affecting music CDs. Folks are finding signs of disc rot on picture and game discs as well. The data on CDs containing music and photo can be digitized and transferred to computer. Game CDs are usually proprietary to the system they're designed for.

The great irony here is that CDs were sold to us as a format with more longevity than vinyl. But, it looks like I might need to invest in some milk crates again.

More From US 104.9