Question and Answers

What is the difference between CD-RW and CD-R? - great_grandma_edwina@verizon.net What is each type of disc used for? What if the wrong one is used?

Best Answer: As most of the others said, CD-R is used for one-time burning. You burn on it once and that's it. The data is there for good. CD-RW discs allow you to burn data onto it, but then you can later erase it and burn something new onto it. They both burn the same, and work the same so your data will still be there on either one. The only things you should watch out for, is CD-RW disks are more expensive, and they actually don't hold their data nearly as long as CD-R disks. Do not use CD-RW disks for archiving, you can't rely on them in the long term. Use CD-R disks for that. CD-RW disks are very good for short-term burning. Like if you have a bunch of files you want to take over to your friend's house. You can burn them onto a CD-RW disk, take it to your friend's house, copy them to his PC, then take the disk back with you and re-use it. - The Psycho

A lot of people here have already answered some of the basics on RW and R but you should also know that CD-RW has compatibility issues so a disc recorded on one machine may no be playable on another so DON'T use CD-RW unless you intend to erase material on it or add additional material. CD-R is much more standard and can be used without major problems on equipment different than that used to record it. The media themselves are also cheaper. If you intend to use one of these CDs on home entertainment systems then use CD-R. Most CD players don't "understand" CD-RWs. An additional recommendation is that you should ensure that your CD player (home entertainment system) is MP3 compatible before recording MP3 music from your computer onto CD-R. Otherwise use analog recording. - dhc_hiker

CD-R are a Recordable CD which you only record on once. You put your data onto it, and it becomes read only. CD-RW are a Recordable CD which you can record on multiple times. You can keep adding data every time you insert the disk until it is full. - Monkeys

CD-RW-IS CD read and write.This is good if you will add material to articles or will have to change add or delete at some time. You may just want to erase the whole thing and start over. CD-R is read only. once its on there its there no changes can be made. this is good for cd burning. Its permanent. - wanda t

CD-RW U CAN REWRITE OVER IT... AND CD-R U CAN JUS ADD THINGS ON IT AND U CANT REWRITE.. **LIL MISS VIXION** - LIL MISS VIXION

darnit...dina answered right before i could. - Courtney

CD-RW Means rewriteable so you can erase it and use it again for somehting else. If you put information on a CDRW it will be fine if you don't try to write over it again. You can ADD files onto a CD-R up to the amount of room left, but they are read only files. With Win98 there was software by Ahead (Nero) called InCD. It used a CDRW like a floppy disk with "packet writing". I loved using it for things like downloaded files that I didn't wat to hog my hard drive. On WinXP I really haven't had much luck with CDRWs but DVD-RWs are fine with Nero software. - Alias

RW can be erased and written on again. With an RW CD you can also write on it without finalizing it, and add more information later to it. CD-R can be written on only once (meaning you can only burn it once, whereas RW you can burn on it more than once). - me

RW= RE-writeable R= Recordable On the first one you may save changes on files that are alreday there, its pretty much the same thing as a disckette. On the second one yo may only save things once. You can not modify it. - dd2006

CD-RW - compact disc rewritable CD-R - compact disc recordable Umm...if you use CD-R...you can't reuse it. They are used for files and music. - bloodless_lady

rw's can be used again and again r's can be used only once. - Rij

CD-RW= rewritable (sp??) CD-R= only put things on there once - dina

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