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Recently I found that one of my Blu-ray disks, and one of my DVDs would not play. There were no scratches on either of them but I noticed the dye on the DVD seemed to be fading in places. I have no idea why the Blu-ray wouldn't play...

I bought another DVD and made an ISO image of it, so if it fails in the future, I'm covered. I have just purchased another copy of the Blu-ray.

Considering the above, do you think it would be wise to back the Blu-ray up?

How common are such problems? Should all disks be backed up to a hard disk?

Thanks in advance!

CDs, DVDs, & Blu-rays don't last forever. Lots of places on the internet have thoughts about how long they last and what the best way to store them is. Here are a couple (Wikipedia, Council on Library and Information Resources)

I think most people start the process of ripping their optical discs not as an act of preservation, but to enjoy the convenience of watching their content digitally and without the hassle of putting a disc in a player and waiting for the FBI warning to play.

Depending on how big your collection is, the hard drive space requirements can be non-trivial. Hard drives don't last forever either and managing them takes time and money, just like everything else.