VSO-Inspector is a free add-on to report various information about your hardware configuration. Using this freeware, you can check the listed cd and dvd readers and writers connected to your computer, check the firmware used. The details about the media used and the speed supported by a given writer with this media. Also you can scan a burnt media for read errors and be confident about the readibility of your fresh backup.
How would you find out if your data on CDs or DVDs is still error free or if time did take its toll and make parts of the CD unreadable ? You could copy the whole content on your hard drive and check it out this way, or: You could use CD Check to do the same.
CDCheck is a utility for the prevention, detection and recovery of damaged files on CD-ROMs with an emphasis on error detection. With CDCheck you can check your CDs and discover which files are corrupted. By using the program proactively, you can insure that your data on CD-ROMs are safe — before it’s too late! CDCheck provides the following features: readability verification, binary compare, CRC file creation (and verification) and file recovery