A few thoughts on archiving:

0) Try to start with media you have at least _reasonable_ trust in. No
bargain-bin no-name media; it _MAY_ be fine, but if you're going to the
trouble of archiving stuff that's not a great bet to take. "When you
want a bargain in the worst possible way, that's generally the way you
get it."

1) Use a recording format with error recovery codes (data CD), not one
which attempts to interpolate past errors (audio CD). Or, if you're
feeling paranoid, burn both. Data CD is more likely to be perfectly
playable after being slightly damaged, audio is more likely to be at
least _partly_ playable after being severely damaged. (I've got an audio
CD which was pretty badly beaten up and run over; I was able to pull 8
of the 12 tracks off it in reasonably listable condition without trying
very hard. Let's hear it for interpolation...)

2) Remember, digital-to-digital copying is lossless. So any time you're
nervous about how much life is left in your media, just recopy to fresh
media, thereby resetting the clock. Yeah, it's a hassle unless you've
either got a relatively small pile of archives or some form of automated
media handling system, but fighting entropy takes energy...

3) If you're archiving for the long term, store compatable hardware and
software with the media. Think how you'd feel if you had the archived
master but no device that could read it and no software which still
understood that file format... or if that software only ran on a
processor which is no longer available. (See also point 2; periodic
recopying is an opportunity to move the data to new media and new formats.)

4) Consider where and how you're storing the physical media. If you're
serious about this, consider burning multiple copies and storing the
extras off-site so if the building burns down you're left with more than
a puddle of plastic, and/or investing in a "media chest" which is
designed to protect these materials from a fire (a normal
good-enough-for-papers box is inadequate for computer or photographic
media).