Just a few things to add. Quality of CD's, always buy good quality CD's not the cheapest. Burning CD's, use a slower setting, takes longer to record but more accurate. Temperature, watch your temperatures. A CD stored at 30 degrees will last longer than a CD stored at 80 degrees. Humidity can be a problem also. I back up to a spare hard disk, a cd and to a zip disk. It does take some time but it takes less time to do that than have to download it all again. Here in the UK it is easier for us to keep CD's at lower temperatures.