OSX and CDR Troubles

[lavode at comcast.net]

Hi all,

Two questions:

1.  I recently had a nasty crash where starting up Classic in OSX caused my 
computer to be totally unresponsive, and I had to hit the reset button.  Now, 
when my Yikes! 400 starts up in X, there is no bar at the top of the screen 
until I open a window; just the apple icon and the little thing that looks like 
a speech baloon.  Also, classic is supposed to startup first thing, but now it 
tries to, gets all the way through the extensions, and then stops.  If I launch 
a Classic app, it goes through the process of starting Classic again, and by 
the second time, it usually works.  What should I do?

2.  The Audio CDs I made about 2 years ago sound like they have static on them, 
and my computers (Yikes and 7300) won't even recognize them as CDs.  My 
assumption is that the ink has faded in the CDs.  How do you avoid this?  If 
CDRs aren't very permanent, what do you use to back up your hard drive?

Thanks all,
Lavode