I do all my test burns with RWs and I do not have that many. In view of this, I'd say I used the same disks probably 50 times or more. THey still seem to work fine.

Ditto. Used the same Maxell DVD-RW and Verbatim DVD+RW many, many times. Just handle them carefully. Apparently there is a new scratch resistant product on the market. Not sure who is selling it up here in northern Canada but have heard it is as tough as a replicated disc.

I think manufacturers quote that RW media should be good on average for about 1,000 writes (this probably includes erasing as a write cycle). The scratch resistant discs are from TDK.

DVD-RAM is good for 100,000 & is my preferred option for backing up files to disc.

Thank you all. My mind is at rest. DGrob

And I thought I was pushing it at 30-35 reuses. LOL!

Anybody know what's suppose to happen when they do fail, like it is you just can't write to them no more a you'll get an error or wouldn't you known and part of the old data would be merged with new or what?

And while we're on it, should I erase before re-writing? There's no such utility in DVDA that I can find. Nero 6 gives you such an option. Roxio Basic (which I use for data CDs and such) doesn't. If I'm not seeing it, do I assume I don't need it? DGrob

I haven't done it for awhile, but if I remember right DVD-A asks if its OK to overwrite if it sees data already on the disc. If not you can use the Nero utility to erase.

I can't remember the details, but I've had problems with DVD-A's erasing (it decided to spend half an hour erasing the disk, and then gave me some error message). After a few of those, I always use Nero to erase my DVD-RW discs.

As to the original subject, I've seen similar statements about the number of re-writes being close to 1,000. Many years ago, I had big problems with cheap CD-RW discs -- after about five re-writes, they gave up. I've never had the problem with quality CD-RW discs, and the so far the DVD-RW discs are fine (although I had a similar experience with cheap DVD-RW discs, and have -- once again -- learned my lesson about using cheap media).

IMHO it is not necessary to erase a disc prior to rewriting. DVDA will overwrite the data. I haven't had a problem doing it this way yet.

As for how many times you can rewrite - 50 is waaaayyyy too low of a number.

Unless you only work with one disc and don't take very much good care of that disc - it will probably crap out eventually - but I've been using the same disc for test burns and I've already gone through about 100 rewrites...no problems.

In theory...that disc should still be around long after we are all gone. If taken care of properly, that is.