From: William R. Walsh on
Hi!

> My question is *exactly* what kind of media do I buy?

Your computer can seemingly burn both the + and - R/RW types. The RW discs
can be erased and reused, which is something you won't want to do with
recovery discs. That narrows it to the "R" types, and you might as well use
DVD+R because those blank discs seem to be more common (and cheaper in some
cases).

> 8x?
> 16x?

These are the speeds at which the disc can reliably be burned. If you use a
slower rated disc (8X) for a fast (16X) burn you may end up with corrupted
data, or discs that have only a short life. Some DVD burners and the
software that operates them are smart enough not to burn media at too high
of a speed. Others are not. With these discs, you can also choose to burn
them at a slower rate than the maximum listed on the box or media. Doing so
will not harm anything. (The reason why is below.)

On the other hand, a faster burning rate means that the discs may not be as
precisely made as they would be had you burned them at a slower rate. (This
is true because the components inside the drive have to move faster to keep
up, and therefore may not move as precisely.) This is usually not a big deal
for any modern drive that will read the discs. Since you have an 8X drive,
you can safely use either the 8X or 16X discs without issue. It would just
be a matter of what costs less if you care about price. Do try to buy media
from a well established name--although this is far from foolproof (the name
on the box seldom if ever matches the actual maker of the disc, even if that
company does make such products) as the actual manufacturers can change.
Verbatim, Sony, and Memorex are all reasonably good choices.

"House brand" media can also be OK if you can determine who actually made
the discs.

William


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