CD Rewritables (CD-RW) longevity

Factual Questions
1

According to what I read on boxes of CD-RW media, the Rewritable CD has a life expectancy of 1000 writes.

When I got my first CD-RW drive some years ago (when they first came out), I asked HP customer support about the longevity of CD-RW media. They told me that the 1000 times was basically an estimate. He told me that they had done their own trials and discovered that they last even longer. They hooked up a drive and created a program to write and rewrite to the same sectors on the CD and after days of running it had not produced any errors.

How long can a CD-RW last?
How do you know when a CD-RW is no longer reliable for storing data?

2

They probably told you the truth. Copy you data to a fresh CDRW, if you are suspicious. They are ~$2.50 a piece now.

3

It sounds to me then that I shouldn’t use CD-RWs for serious data backups, that less espensive CD-Rs would be a more effective way of ensuring preservation of data. CDRs are even less expensive than CD-RWs.

Has anyone had a CD-RW suffer from overuse?
What clues did you have that the CD-RW was about to die?