Verifying Burned CDs

Factual Questions
1

How obsessive do I need to be when verifying that my data CDs have been burned properly?

I gots an iBook with a Sony CDRW CRX800E running OS 10.3.8.

After a few scares (and thankfully little lost data, mainly because of dumb luck) I have become a fervent believer in the Church of the Backup. Ye, verily, I burn my home directory to CD each month in the dark of the Moon (or, ya know, on the first Monday after the first of the month.)

After the CD finishes burning, it says, “Verifying” and spins and whirrs and buzzes, until it’s satisfied. About three times in the history of me burning disks with this computer and drive, a disk has failed verification, and two of those were reused CDRWs.

After the computer has verified and pronounced the disk Good, I always (being paranoid) pop the CD tray open, pop the disk out and resettle it on the doohickey (spindle? That can’t be right.) then shut it again so that the disk is reread. I open it in the Finder and make sure that the files are readable. Basically my question is: is this redundant? Am I simply repeating the “verify” the computer just did, at the cost of more wear and tear to my CD drive? Or is it possible that there could be some flaw in the disk that the “verify” wouldn’t catch that simply reinserting and rereading the disk will catch?

Or is there something else I should be doing to verify the disk? I could pop the disk into a different computer. Would that be better, or just more superfluous?

I haven’t had any of the odd assorted (non-backup) disks I’ve burned that I thought were good end up being bad, but having my harddrive bite the dust and then discovering that my last backup is a coaster would be . . . traumatic.

2

How obsessive do I need to be…

As much as you feel you need to be.

…resettle it on the doohickey (spindle? That can’t be right.)

You had it right, it is simply called the tray. I suppose you could say resettle it in the depression on the tray.

is this redundant?

Yeah, it is. But so what? If it makes you feel more secure, then that is a good enough reason to do it in my book.

at the cost of more wear and tear to my CD drive?

The amount of “wear and tear” in reading a disk better be negligible or your drive is garbage. Sure, all mechanical devices eventually fail but unless you have a lemon, your CD-R drive should easily outlast the average lifespan of any computer. I have a ten year old CR ROM drive that I bought used for $5 and it is still working just fine.

I could pop the disk into a different computer. Would that be better, or just more superfluous?

It can’t hurt, but I certainly wouldn’t consider it necessary. Burn a few disks and test them as many ways as you can think of. If all goes well, then I’d just verify that each newly burned disks can be read and be done with it.