It doesn't matter how you store your maps or where you store them, as long as you make sure that the place you copied them to contains the same data. Other criteria are: how much data do you have and how long are you planning to keep it?
As for the backup itself: you should have verified the content of the DVD before wiping your disk. Most (if not all) CD/DVD burning applications come with data verification. It may take some additional time, but it's the only way to make sure that your files haven't been corrupted during the process.
I am working on getting access to the old news portal under a different URL for those that would rather use that for news before we get a different news view.
It is OK though for the main page to open up on the forum in the view it was before. As long as the portal has its own URL so it can be viewed that way I do want to try it as a regular forum view for a while
I switched it to a "Standard" article forum. This will show the thread list like normal, but the threads themselves will have the first post set up above the rest of the "comments"