CD-RWs Are Dead, Right?

[Jason Dunn]

I was talking to a woman the other day who was telling me she was having difficulty in burning a CD, because Windows XP kept complaining that the disc wasn't formatted properly. She also asked how she could secure the CD to prevent others from writing to it or changing her files. Playing a hunch, I asked her what type of CD she was using. Not surprisingly, she replied that it was a CD-RW. I was somewhat surprised - I haven't used a CD-RW myself in over two years, and it's rare to hear people talk about them. CD-Rs are so cheap now it seems like an unnecessary hassle to work with CD-RWs. If you are still using CD-RWs, in what sorts of scenarios do you use them? Survey time!

[Ed Hansberry]

I've got a stack of CD-RWs from 2 years ago when I purchased my first burner. They are such a hassle. I'd tell XP to erase it so I could put new data on it. It could take over an hour to clear it up, sometimes locking up requiring a reboot - a hard reboot using the power button. I never cared enough to even go online to ask about it. I just switched to CD-Rs. Glad to see I'm not the only one with problems.

[Bob12]

I use CD-R discs for my PC but still use CD-RW mini discs with my Sony CD400 camera.

[Suhit Gupta]

Since CD-Rs have always been so cheap, I never found the need for CD-RWs. I mean, even if I toasted a CD-R, the loss was at most a few cents. I think that DVD-RWs are probably a better deal since that offers a lot more movable storage. Although, in a year or so, I am guessing that I will probably be using the same above argument in favor of DVD-Rs.

Suhit

[bcre8v2]

I agree with Suhit and Jason- CD-R's are so cheap, I use them rather than taking the time to use CD-RW's (I have purchased stacks of 100 for free after rebates).
Unfortunately, they become like diapers: prevalent in the landfill and taking hundreds of years to degrade! 8O
I haven't enjoyed burning DVD's, yet. I am not very patient and don't like to wait 10 minutes or don't want to record 450 MB to a 4.x GB disc. I figure my "sweetspot" is when DVD's either hit 32x or we find a different medium for data exchange.
I save the DVD-+RW's (or whatever format - I can't keep track -"pun intended") for "family" movies... :oops:

[Crocuta]

I only use CD-RWs for very limited things; generally stuff that needs to be changed regularly. For example, I have a CD-RW set up on my wife's computer for backing up whenever she shuts down the system. I use a little program called Second Copy that only copies over file that have changed. Because it's something that changes just a little every day, a CD-RW fits the bill.

[marlof]

I don't like tossing away CDs. It's not only about the price, but also about the environment. So when I need to take large files between my home and my work (where all USB ports are disabled in BIOS for security reasons), I burn a CD-RW, and read that at work. This way I don't have to toss away things all the time.

[Andy Manea]

When I first got a CD burner, I used to keep a CD-RW with important documents that would change from time to time, so that I could overwrite it. Unfortunately, one day half of the documents on it were unaccessible/wiped out/gone!!
That was such a shocking experience that I never used CD-RWs again, even though I feel really guilty about the environment myself. At least I wait until I can fill a whole CD before I burn it. One thing I can't make myself do is burn a 650-700 MB CD for a few MBs worth of files. Sometimes I use the small 200MB CDs, even though I find it outrageous that they cost more than the big ones even though the material costs are so much lower.

[Janak Parekh]

I was talking to a woman the other day who was telling me she was having difficulty in burning a CD, because Windows XP kept complaining that the disc wasn't formatted properly.
Here's a related interesting question: how many people use the built-in XP CD tools? I don't use them much -- most of my time is in Easy CD Creator 6 and Nero 5.5 -- and as such I have virtually zero problems with CD-RW media. I was just thinking of ordering some, too -- specifically so that I could keep a "updated drivers disk" instead of constantly making new ones and throwing them out.

--janak

[ctmagnus]

I do most of my burning on a Win2K machine. Otherwise, it's Roxio 6 on WinXP. None of that in-built burning cr@p for me! (I never figured it out. :oops: )

[Crocuta]

Here's a related interesting question: how many people use the built-in XP CD tools? I don't use them much -- most of my time is in Easy CD Creator 6 and Nero 5.5 -- and as such I have virtually zero problems with CD-RW media. I was just thinking of ordering some, too -- specifically so that I could keep a "updated drivers disk" instead of constantly making new ones and throwing them out.

I tried the built-in XP tools for about 5 minutes before going back to a 3rd party product. It was just too cumbersome. I guess because I'd gotten used to Easy CD Creator, I just couldn't step backwards to the built-in version (which is also made by them, but definitely bare minimum operationally). Anyway, I think you make a good point. If someone were having trouble with CD-RWs and were using the built-in system, I'd definitely suggest they try something else before abandoning the medium.

[Bob12]

I use the WinXP included CD software and have never had a problem with it.

[ChristopherTD]

I have never used CD-RW as my CD burners have always been slow. If I am going to spend the time burning a CD I want to be "safe", a CD-RW always seemed a fragile and unsafe destination for my data! I have a spare hard disk for transient copies of work-in-progress, and CD-R for archival/backup.