Problems with CD-Rw Discs

My laptop does not have a CD-RW facility and a module that does would cost over £300 so I opted for an external Iomega CD-RW to connect to my laptop.
The discs I have are 650 Memorex CD-RW and I have had problems getting them to run. Firstly the Iomega external CD-RW said that I must format the discs but when I tried a message came up saying there was no disc in place. Evevntually when I mannaged to download a file from the laptop to the external CD-Rw it would not run on my desktop PC.
I have been told that some external CD-RWs are not always compatable with Desktop PCs but I wonder if it that Memorex discs are not up to the job.
My question is: Does any one know of an independent review of CD-Rw discs on the web or am I asking the wrong question?

to be honest mate dont use the rewriteable ones, the worm ones (write once read many) CD's are so cheap it really isn't worth the hassle using the rw CD's

In order to use CD-RW as an oversized floppy drive, you need software like Adeptec Ez CD creator's direct CD or something like that. Although I have an ioemga internal burner on my desktop and a sony burner that comes with my iBook.

I don't use CD-RW's either. The two I have from 5 years ago have degraded and some of the data has become corrupted. CD-R's are pennies anymore, just go buy in bulk.