My techno-geek son is at the Consumer Electronics show in Vegas right now, but in his absence I seem to recall that you must buy re-writable CD's. Ordinary CD's can only be written to one time. Are you making CD's to give to people or are you using them to archive things from your computer? If you are achiving (back up) why not just buy an external 300GB hard drive witha case with cables for around $100, and even less if you require less storage. Check www.newegg.com for pricing. My son buys from them, so the prices must be good.