CD Burning Issue, bitrot?

[henry_l]

Windows 10 with Nero, BurnAware --

I primarily use CD disc burning for audio files, mostly flac and mp3.

I limit my burning to one session disc-at-a-time and test all content for playability before putting the disc away.  Content always below disc capacity.

Yet returning to the disc (usually months) I periodically find some files not playable, along with being unable to read them via Windows Explorer (i.e., can't copy from the CD).  

Anyone know what's happening?  Is this bitrot?  Am I better off archiving on a flash drive?

Thanks all.

[floele]

If you want to archive, do not use optimal media other than maybe specialised discs like M-Disc.

[FREEDOM 35]

normal optical media is horrible for archiving, as bad as hard drives or worse if its really cheap stuff. I use m-disc blu rays for archiving, normal blu rays that don't use an organic layer and have a metal layer could also do the trick but m-discs are the highest grade discs you can get. you could also try out verbatim ultralife archival gold dvds if you dont want to get a blu ray burner, but blu ray m discs are MUCH cheaper per gigabyte than verbatim gold archival dvds and probably more reliable. I use almost exclusively blu ray m discs and verbatim archival dvds for small stuff if I don't want to waste a blu ray on something tiny. also, burning slower could help, but you can only get cheap archival dvds to last so long. also check out verbatim azo layer dvds, they arn't branded as archival dvds but they should last wayyy longer than the cheap stuff.