[Tfug] Optical drives

[Bexley Hall]

Hi,

My CD/DVD writers are starting to get temperamental.
E.g., acting as if the disks are scratched/smudged
and throwing lots of read errors (often "solved"
by reseating the medium or wiping it clean, etc.).

I burn a fair number of discs (DVD and CD) as "medium
term" archives so the drives see a fair bit of wear and
tear.

I figure its probably time to consider replacements.

My last purchase was a CD-RW for all of $10 -- some sort
of holiday deal years ago (*it*, actually, is still fine).
So, I have no idea what the price point for these drives
is likely to be.

Also, it *seems* like DVD writer is the better bet -- in
that it can *also* burn CD's.  But, is there an *advantage*
to retaining CD-RW as a separate capability?  E.g., perhaps
more reliably *reads* (or writes) CD media than the DVD
would?

(consider the analogy to retaining single density floppy
drives vs. higher density drives that "claim" to be
compatible:  the track widths are different so the former
is actually a better bet at maintaining the lower density
media)

Pointers re: manufacturers and vendors (local or mail order)?

Thanks!
--don