Here is an article from www.langa.com that discusses cd failure and labels. While I know that using a felt tip pen will not work for Braille labels, it points out the problem with stick on labels. That was certainly the case in my tests: I did discover bad CDs, but not one--zero--was traceable to a specific brand or dye type. Instead, for me, the only disks that failed were those that I had covered with a glue-on paper label from a print-it-yourself CD label-maker kit. Several of these labeled CDs were, in fact, totally unreadable by every means I tried (including special data-recovery software); all the data on those CDs is just plain gone. My best guess is the glue on these do-it-yourself labels interacted with either the foil or the dye, rendering the CDs useless. Fortunately, although I have more than 1,000 data CDs in storage, only a handful have these labels. All my other CDs were hand labeled using an ordinary permanent-ink felt-tip marker, and all of these that I tested--all of them, including the very first CD-R in my collection--remain intact and fully readable. Plus, because I make multiple backups of important files http://www.langa.com/backups/backups.htm , no essential data was lost (what was missing on one CD was available on another.) I'd used two different brands of CD label-makers in the past, and (alas) have no way of knowing whether only one or both caused the problem. But the bottom line is that while some CDs with glue-on labels had problems, none--not one--marked with a permanent ink felt-tip pen did. The full article is at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15800263&pgno=1 Bob --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.543 / Virus Database: 337 - Release Date: 21/11/2003 VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List. To join or leave the list, send a message to [log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type "subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations. VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html