need opinions...

[Blade-Heat]

my mom is gonna make a trip do the USA (Boston) and thats the chance for me to get a dvd burner to backup my CDs/DVDs games... so i have some questions:

1)which one should i get??? im thinking about the pionner A05/105 or the sony DR500A, i now both are good, altough the sony is more expensive, it writes in both DVDR- and DVDR+, would that be a problem??? i know that v5 and up with a messiah 2 pro runs backup DVDR+ just fine, but is there sumetin else i need to know???? and the only difference between the Pionner A05 and 105 is that one comes with the retail box and the other doesn't???

2)Im also thinking in getting a new cd writer, mine is just too damn old... which ones u guys would recommend??? heard good things about lite-ons. One that can backup PSX/PS2 cds would be great

3)Now about the media... i know the riteks dvdr's are great, so im getting some of those, but what about cds???? would the verbatims do the job??? heard good think about the Taiyo Yudens, so are they really good????

4)can some1 recommend me a good retail store in Boston - Massachusetts or a online one that sells all those things for a nice price??? rima.com seems good

5)backing up scratched cds/dvds work??? i mean, when u do a backup of a dvd for example that's all f**ked up , will it work?? or the data on the dvd is already screwed, making the backup useless???
for example: lets say i have a original MGS2 and it is all scratched. When i try to play it, the game freezes or just slows down. Would making a backup copy of it, into a brand new dvdr, work??? will the game play like new, of it will play like the old, scratchy one????

sorry for the "damn noobie making long post" thing and for asking questions that may have already been answered
thx to any one who answers