OK, this is all great feed

OK, this is all great feedback, and basically confirms my understanding of the issues involved. I have revised the article to explain the dye/bleaching info, which even better explains why the disks are so easily damaged.

I am wondering now about burn speed versus rated disk speed. If I ratchet back my burn speeds to 4x, or even 2x, that will help, and I have already been doing that for a month or so. So say I am burning at 4x… does it matter if I am using disks that are rated at 8x, or 16x. Or should I be matching this to my burn speed. Obviously slower disks are less expensive, but I do have 150 Ritek 8x disks on hand.

thanks in advance, Peter