To achieve long-term data storage on a sapphire optical disk, this paper researches how to record data on the sapphire optical disk surface in a digital form. On the basis of Eyring equation, the time-to-failure of data recording on the substrates made of inorganic materials was estimated. The data recording process on the sapphire optical disk with the substrate made of sapphire in digital form was introduced. Dry etching techniques as well as an ion beam etching system were emphasized. Experimental results show that the width and depth of a pit on the optical disk are 0.6 μm and 0.2 μm, respectively, the track pitch is 1.6 μm, and those parameters of the pits on the surface of sapphire optical disk are in compliance with that of CD-ROM form defined by ISO/IEC 10149:1995 standard. These results demonstrate that the proposed method is feasible to realize data recording in digital form on sapphire optical disks. The method is not only suitable for the sapphire optical disk , but also for other optical disks with substrates made of high stable materials(such as quartz glass).