The problem with optical drives is that they are so slow to write to
I have a load of blank DVDs, so I am backing up some files to them, but boy does it take a while.
got a problem with some blue-ray disks I have, they write halfway and then come up with a error. Never used to have this issue with optical drives. Maybe it is because they were cheap unknown, the M Blu-ray discs i got are fine.
I may have a look for some brand name ones, may cost a little more, but worth the extra and still cheaper than buying a load of usb pen drives.

I know I am replying to myself
I have just done some checking online for prices and stuff, and I may have been wrong about prices

On amaozn,
Memory Stick 32GB 10 Pack ENUODA USB Stick 2.0 Flash Drive Swivel Design USB Memory Sticks Pen Storage (10 Mixed Color) is £34.99, which works out at around 16p per GB.

Again from Amaozn, 20 x Traxdata Blu-Ray 25Gb 4x BD-R Blank Discs - White Inkjet Printable (2 x 10 Packs) is £16.99, which is around 85p per GB.

That is a fair difference in price. ok there are cheaper disks, but not sure what they are like and I still don't think I would get down to 16p a GB.

I do have some problems with pen drives, one is that with cheap unknown brand ones, again is reliability and what chips they use, the second is they are difficult to label and the third is that they can be rewritten if my machine had a virus, optical disks can't once closed.

The other thing is I have had a problem with Usb for a while now, USB drives will only work on usb2 ports, plug them into the usb 3 ports and they are not recognised.
i thought it was just my machine, but I built a machine for my brother a while back and that has the same problem, I think it is a AMD chip set thing.