# How Many Times Can You Reuse a CD-RW **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 8, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-times-can-you-reuse-a-cd-rw/499153 "2009-06-08T22:29:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-times-can-you-reuse-a-cd-rw/499153/1 "2009-06-08T22:29:39Z")
I don’t use CDs often anymore and CD-R’s are cheap, but I now have a temp job, where it seems the best way to transfer would be using a CD. Now if I burn a CD-R I would have a permenent, but unneeded copy of the data. A CD-RW I could reuse. Now I can get CD-R’s on sale very cheap so it might not be worth it to use CD-RW. I was wondering from user experience, how many times can you re-use a CD-RW reliably. The packages say “up to 1000 times,” but I’m very skeptical of that. But then again I have no experience using them Any thoughts? What has your personal experience been with them? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-times-can-you-reuse-a-cd-rw/499153/2 "2009-06-08T23:11:02Z")
I believe they’re good for a few hundred cycles, usually. You’re probably going to lose, scratch, or break it mechanically before the rewriteableness is used up. But I’d suggest that you just use a USB drive instead. You can get a 4GB one (5+x bigger than a CD-RW) for less than $10. It’s small enough to fit on a keychain, doesn’t require a lengthy erase/reburn cycle, and it’ll work on any computer with a USB slot. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-times-can-you-reuse-a-cd-rw/499153/3 "2009-06-08T23:26:14Z")
The ones I use are good for hundreds of cycles. I don’t thing you could keep the media pristine enough for a 1,000 cycles. Those scuffs and such take their toll. You can definitely reuse them enough to make up for the difference in price for a cdr verses cdrw. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-times-can-you-reuse-a-cd-rw/499153/4 "2009-06-09T01:05:18Z")
Thanks, unfortunately the procedure requires a CD, so I can’t use a USB or anything else, which would make things so nice 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Aquila\_Be](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a698b9/32.png) [@Aquila\_Be](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquila_Be)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-times-can-you-reuse-a-cd-rw/499153/5 "2009-06-09T11:39:14Z")
If you only need to save it on a temporary basis why don’t you email the work stuff you want to save to your home computer and email it back to work again as needed? ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-times-can-you-reuse-a-cd-rw/499153/6 "2009-06-09T12:11:25Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Thanks, unfortunately the procedure requires a CD, so I can’t use a USB or anything else, which would make things so nice > > 🙂 Curiosity piqued - what “procedure” requires the use of a CD, and why would a little USB thumb drive not be allowed? ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-times-can-you-reuse-a-cd-rw/499153/7 "2009-06-09T18:10:40Z")
> [@Early\_Out](#): > > Curiosity piqued - what “procedure” requires the use of a CD, and why would a little USB thumb drive not be allowed? I’ll take a guess that it is somewhere that they have concerns about Conficker type worms, which use a USB vunerability to propagate. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-times-can-you-reuse-a-cd-rw/499153/8 "2009-06-09T18:57:29Z")
The other possibility that occurred to me is that it’s a system that has sensitive or classified data on it. So, you can bring a “read only” medium to the office (assuming there’s no CD burner on the work PC), but not a writeable medium, like a thumb drive. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-times-can-you-reuse-a-cd-rw/499153/9 "2009-06-09T23:00:58Z")
There is security filters on these files. You can’t copy them, you can’t transfer them over a network, etc. Oddly enough you can simply burn the files to CD and the security filter is gone. (Well you can copy them but the results are jibberish) Probably a similar scheme to WMA files that are DRM’d. ---
**Author:** ![Otanx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Otanx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otanx)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-times-can-you-reuse-a-cd-rw/499153/10 "2009-06-10T00:54:53Z")
> [@Early\_Out](#): > > Curiosity piqued - what “procedure” requires the use of a CD, and why would a little USB thumb drive not be allowed? DoD currently bans any USB storage device from any system. The main reason in the conficker virus. One of the branches (Army I think) got hit hard right when it came out. Also makes it harder to accidently release classified data to an unclassed system. -Otanx