Burning problems

Ok, I have a 1.25 mghz eMac that is about a year and a half old. It has the CD-RW/DVD combo drive and has been upgraded to a full gigabyte of memory. I am running the most up-to-date Panther and iTunes.

I am having a real time making data CDs through OS or Toast, however, I can still burn CDs on iTunes. After burning it says that it failed to verify and that the disk may not be any good. When I insert the disk it says that I have loaded a volume that MAC OS does not recognize and it tells me to either ignore it or eject it. I have tried this with a variey of CD-Rs and RWs. These same disks work fine making an iTunes CD. Searching the net the concensus seems to point that the drive may be failing but after 1 1/2 years? I used an IBM clone laptop in the field for 2 years in the Army and never had one problem with the thing and this thing that sits in an office is going to crap out barely after a year?

Edit:

I just had success using Toast. By unchecking close disk, verify disk and checking buffer underrun prevention I was able to burn the data I wanted 5 ruined disks later.