I keep a stack of disc rot in the office so I can scare people into digitizing their stuff 
Nah they were like this when we got them, but there's nothing in the stack breaking my heart, fortunately.
This one from a few years ago was pretty upsetting though, since it's still the only known copy of this game
Anyway just to be clear: while disc rot can happen on retail discs that you bought from a store, it's pretty unlikely. All of it that I've dealt with is on writable media (CD-R, DVD-R), where the data is a physical layer that can actually flake off.
For us at @GameHistoryOrg this is mainly for old preview builds etc., but for you it might be old family photos you backed up 15 years ago, personal data, etc. If you've got data that only exists on a burned disc, retrieve it before this happens!
