CD-RW for backups

[Falcon21]

I am using CD-RW to backup some of my data. If one day my CD writer stop working, will I be able to access those data on the CD-RWs with CD writer of other brands?
How many times can a CD-RW be re-writed?
Thanks.

[nihil]

No problem,

If it is a CD drive it will work

You might be thinking about DVD?...yes, there are conflicting/incompatible technologies there.

SONY.................they support all formats, but the kit is expensive

Any DVD drive that write CDs will write one you can read.

Hope that helps



EDIT: At least 100, probably 500, maybe 1000?

[Iceborg]

Who wants to hear something really stupid now that I think back on it?

I was reformatting and doing a clean install of XP to get rid of some error messages, so I backed up my whole drive, except system ****, on to 15 CD-Rs.

I think it is stupid because I know there was a better way to do it...lol...

--

Good Idea using CD-RWs and I concur with nihil. Just about any brand can read any other brand and they can definitely be written many upon many times.

[D0pp139an93r]

To clear up confusion:

A good CDRW can be RW'd about 300-350 times.

DVD interoperability depends on whether it's DVD-R or DVD+R. I believe that - will become the standard, but who knows.

The higher end DVD burners can burn both formats, but most of the more basic burners can only burn one or the other


EDIT: Cheap CD combined with cheap burners can sometimes cause read problems, it's not the format, it's the cheapness.