I have 4 year old CDRWs and still use them. Even with daily erasure and use, it would take a few years to hit the 1000 erase rating. http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-7588-0.html?forumID=70&threadID=22146&messageID=239705
As to CD-R, IF your recording supports multi-session, then I wish you well, but can't tell you how many get freaked out when a multisession doesn't work on other machines than what it was made on.
Maybe an USB Hard Disk with an daily CDRW backup would make sense?
Bob
First of all, I know about CD-RWs, & that they can get around some of the questions below. Unfortunately they're short-lived & expensive, so I need some answers about using CD-Rs to manage my research data. There are a lot of other people I know who would like these answers also.
Second of all, floppy disks are too small for copying what we need. 1 picture or 1 document copied off of microfilm can fill or exceed the capacity of a floppy disk.
Is it possible to add more data to a CD-R that isn't full? We use it to copy data off of microfilm & the most that can get scanned & copied at a time is less than 10 MB. Is all the rest of that space now useless?
If I find new data to go with the old, can I add it to the same CD-R? I share a lot of data with others on CDs, do we have to keep making new CDs rather than just adding the new data? All this data needs to be on disks that will last a long time, which eliminates CD-RWs.
Can a CD-R be erased somehow, rather than tossing a CD that is 99% empty? (Please don't say it doesn't matter because they're so cheap, it's still a
waste of money, & we generate too much non-biodegradable & possibly toxic garbage for our landfills already).
If all else fails, can CD-Rs be recycled somewhere?

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic