[elton]

I have heard that before...the material starts to come off of the DVD..I have never had it happen..but I do suppose there is a difference in quality of DVDs and CDs...I still have windows 98 disks that work fine for example

I currently use external hard drives as they have become very affordable.

Something I hadnt considered is the thread starter may have a netbook and may not come with a DVD burner

The problem appears to be worse in writable DVDs. Factory made ones don't seem to rot as quickly.

I think the format essentially is flawed. Remember the claim that CDs would supply perfect sound forever? Absolute tosh. I've got CDs less than 10 years old and if you look at the surface, they're clearly corroding and the sound quality is affected because of it. And that's treating them well. Leave them out by mistake or because you're in a hurry at your peril!