how long does a rw dvd last?
 

in your experience, how long can one reuse a rw dvd before it becomes unuseable?

does lifetime really mean lifetime?

i'm currently rotating 10 rw dvds. will this method really prolong the life of these rw dvds?

No.

DVD+RW and DVD-RW will die after a few months, used or not.

How long is a "few months" is the question, right? Well, it all comes down to how good the media is.

Most of my INFODISCA1 DVD+RW are dead now. I had about 75 of them in 2004, and as of today, most of them are goners. I threw away at least 20 of them within 6 months, the rest got pitched out every 3 months after that.

My SONY DVD+RW all went pretty quick too, in fact 2 out of 10 were dead the day I bought them. At least 2-3 of the 10 Fuji discs I bought last summer are now toast as well.

RW media is not like -R or +R media. DVD-R and DVD+R use dyes. RW media is not using dye, it uses phase-change crystals.

You can almost always see a bad RW disc with the naked eye. It develops craters in the materials (as in moon craters). Some are tiny, pin-head sized, some are a whole 1mm across, so look carefully.

In general, DVD-RW lasts a lot longer thatn DVD+RW.

I have been using TDK (TDK), Maxell (MXL), Sony (SONY), Fuji (MKM) and Pioneer (PVC) DVD-RW in my JVCs since 2004. All of my PVC and MKM discs are fine. I've lost a few of the others in the past 2 years, maybe 5 out of 30. I currently have 45 DVD-RW discs, left from the 50 I bought initially.

On the flipside, I got a lot of free PRINCO and RITEK DVD-RW media back in 2002-2003, all of it died after 2-3 uses. I have 1 Memorex-branded RITEK DVD-RW that still works, but I try to never rely on it for something important.

These should be good (excellent price):
http://www.meritline.com/verbatim-dv...isc-discs.html

ta for that smurfo.

what's the odds, just when i want to record something important, media dies on me?

Murphy's Law would state whatever can go wrong, will.
Math-wise though, as long as you've got good discs, not very likely.

How does Verbatim RW discs stack up?

Verbatim are MCC or MKM discs, and are fine.
They would be be second on the overall quality pile, first on the modern pile.
PVC could outperform it, but those discs have not been made since 2003.