CD-Dilemma

I am such a retard.

In view that I am going to reformat my laptop sometime next week, I had decided to back-up all important files, programs and pictures in CDs. Till now, I have burn 25 CD's.

But when I brought my Dubai pics CD and test it at my workstation, I was shocked to see the CD empty! So I brought all 25 CD's to my aunt's place the next day to double check if whatever I burn is there. Apparently not.

So I decided to burn the "missing" ones like now, but when I checked it via my laptop under the CD drive, nothing is missing!

So which is right?

I am at my dead end. Unless someone can advise me on what I did wrong, I give up!