1000 CD R/W's versus a 32gb Flash drive? I know which I'd rather store! You can buy 32gb flash drives for as little as GBP 15 nowadays and each one holds the equivalent of 49 x 650MB cd's. And 500gb portable hard drives cost about GBP 50 and hold the equivalent of approx 787 cd's or 106 DVD's! And to my way of thinking never having to worry about the filing nightmare associated with having dozens and dozens of CD's or DVD's makes life soooo much easier. But I do take Domiles point about old optical discs filling up land fill sites....