CD-R and CD-RW are two removable media used in CD BURNERS to copy or "Burn" your digital files onto for transporting. (Also known as CD's).

CD-R is a CD Recordable which means you "burn" only once. Once the information is there it is etched in stone and cannot be changed or "saved" back on the same disk.

CD-RW is a CD Rewritable which means it has a patented surface that after burning can be "erased" and burned again. But due to the cheap cost of CD-Rs compared to the higher cost of CD-RW and the fact that the CD-RW can only be erased so many times most people just use CD-R's. Also most CD-RW software use proprietary technologies and file formats which makes the reading of the CD-RW hard or impossible to "read" in another machine that does not have that particular software. So we highly recommend using CD-R and use a universal burning format if you are burning your own CD's.