Consistently Bad Burns

This seems like such a standard question I almost hesitate to ask but...

Recently I've been having a SHITLOAD of bad burns.  I recently had to back up my extensive mp3 collection to DVD's, so I got started and burned the first disc at 4x (lowest speed my current media will allow) after a fresh reboot, with virtually nothing running in the background whatsoever.  The verify failed about 30% through.  Restarted, tried again, didn't bother verifying.  Tried copying all the mp3's back to my HD to test (figured this would be faster).  At least 11 or 12 of the albums were corrupted.

I wouldn't ask except that this is occurring with frightening regularity.  I have had excellent, fully working burns off this exact spindle of DVD-R's.  I've got a (relatively) new Memorex DVD-9 burner in a 2.5GHz Celeron system.  I have a shitty 256mb of ram, but as I said, I try to be as kind as possible by burning with minimal processes + fresh reboot...

Any tips/tweaks/fucking ANYTHING I can do?  I need to back up around 200+ GB VERY soon due to an odd HDD situation, so quick responses are needed.

Did you try to install the drive in another computer?
If it doesn't work there, then the drive's probably damaged. If it does, then the driver is probably broken.

Probably :)

I don't have access to another comp to test it in, unfortunately.  What could be damaged about it?  It's given me good burns for a while now--as recently as last week I got perfect burns off of it.

Try different blank media, first of all. I had a spindle of DVD-Rs where the first fifty or so were fine, and the rest died (I think I left them in the sun though). Eliminate the media first, then think about troubleshooting your drive/computer.

>>3
IF it is broken, then it is probably a problem with the laser which is not correctly adjusted - and which cannot be fixed by humans...
Those things normally happen when you transport them.

Either that, or you just picked some of those printable DVD-Rs and your drive can't handle them - and this is quite normal with older (1 year up) drives. A solution would be a firmware upgrade or - much easier and more secure - just to buy "normal" DVD-Rs

>>5
Shit, two strikes--I recently moved my computer to my new apartment, and I'm using two different spindles of DVD-R's, both printable (they were cheap x_x).

I guess I've gotta try firmware upgrade...I don't have the availible cash to buy new DVD-R's since I just blew $50 or so on two spindles of printables, ugh.

>>6

I fell for them, too. My drive just couldn't write on them. After reaching 20 % it just finished with an error.
I got rid of those DVD-Rs and bought normal ones. A firmware-upgrade may kill your drive (with some bad luck)...