Home > Consumer Reviews > Memorex 4x 700 MB/80-Minute CD-RW Discs (25-Pack Spindle)

This rewiew is for rewriteable media only!

These CD-RWs are very low quality. I have been using them for a year now and they are bad after erasing them 2-3 times on AVERAGE.

There must be a reason why Fujifilm only produces 650MB and does not offer 700MB disks with phase-change medium! (Fuji disks are my most dependable CD-R medium.)

I have used them with multiple CD-writers, packet writing, UDF, digital-camera, the pocket version 210MB/24min and the full version 700MB/80min. The pocket version for my digital camera (CD-MAVICA) is loosing pictures (read-errors) after 2x erasing the discs. Generally I cannot rewrite the discs or erase them with cdrecord after few times (MEDIUM ERROR).

Their ATIP information is as follows (so that you can distinguish them from other 'brands' that use the same discs):

Manuf. index: 40
Manufacturer: INFODISC Technology Co., Ltd.
Disk type: Phase change
ATIP info from disk:
Indicated writing power: 5
Reference speed: 2
Is not unrestricted
Is erasable
1T speed low: 0 (reserved val 0) 1T speed high: 4
2T speed low: 8 2T speed high: 0 (reserved val 10)
power mult factor: 4 6
recommended erase/write power: 5
A1 values: 02 4C D0
A2 values: 4A D8 5A

I have tried one hundred of these CD-RWs on three different burners (the first 50 were sent back to the manufacturer at my expense). The results are as follows: 70% will not complete the writing process. 10% completed the writing process but were illegible at a later use. 15% would not write a second time, and only 5% were reliable beyond 2 writes and multiple reads.

You might say "hey these are relatively inexpensive, so even if some don't work, I am still ahead of the game." The reality is these CD-RWs will be a big time sink for you. Your PC will stall and stammer, your drive will make strange noises, often for several minutes, as it attempts to read these CDs. Writing is even a bigger waste of time - you will be alerted there was an error in the writing process while 10 - 15 minutes into the process (being only 4X).

My advice is to buy the competitor's higher price version and save your TIME (and get value for your money).

PS: I see the price of the competitor's equilavent item is now lower than this brand, so choosing is a "no-brainer".

I've had mixed results with these Memorex CD-RW discs, having used them on both Windows NT and Windows XP PCs. The discs oftentimes work fine, but more times than I would have liked I've started to add files to an existing disc only to discover that the disc has become unreadable for some reason. This happens even when I use the discs on one PC alone (it happens much more frequently when I go back and forth between computers). I do back up some of my important files on these discs, but I would never depend on them as my sole means for recovering files lost in a PC crash. I'm sure Memorex CD-RWs such as this are quite common among workplaces, as they are relatively inexpensive and widely disseminated. For basic Word/WordPerfect and spreadsheet files, they are OK for the most part. I wouldn't trust these things for graphics or other large files, however, and I certainly would not trust them with really precious files. And whatever you do, make multiple backups of your important files or, if at all possible, make use of more than one backup device.

These are CD-RW discs, of course, so they are made to order for saving text files, spreadsheets, and the like; if you want to save music files, you'll want to use CD-R discs; CD-RWs won't play in standard CD players, and only CD-RW allows you to reinsert the disc and add files at any time (until the disc gets full, of course - it holds 700 MB).

Do Not buy this brand. I have used Philips CD-RWs, they work pretty fine numerous writes and erases later.

I bought these from J&R computers, I dont know How I will return these to them now, probably at my own expense. The question is not of money, I spent 3 full days in trying to figure out what's wrong.

I don't know how Amazon still displays this when somebody does a search. Nobody should sell this product.

If I could rate it a zero, I'd rate it a -10! Stay away from these! I've saved files on over 100 of these. Everything seems fine until I try to retreive something out of them or remove a file. Then good luck trying to open it back up. It'll say the disc is corrupt or cannot be read at all. And I've tried this on 3 computers. Same thing. Yes, you can imagine my fustration that only 5 discs had info. ARg!!! Please, stay away from these. You have better chance of saving your stuff hand writing it and taking months to file it than getting these to read anything!

And please check your discs immediately after writing. Don't wait till months to find out that your data isn't there.

If you have to get these, copy your data somewhere else and write. Don't cut them and lose them into the blackhole that is Memorex!

They are everywhere but just because they're everywhere and the cheapest out there, and have been around a fairly long time doesn't mean they work. Please Memorex, how can you call these Cd-RWs??? Wish I read all these reviews!