ICanHelp.com Customer Support -- Tech Note #7
Backup Media
What choices do I have for backups?
Applies to: Win 95, Win98
Last updated: Saturday October 06, 2007.
SUMMARY What Backup media should I use?
That answer totally depends on how much information (in MB) that you have to backup!
If you want to only backup a small amount of data that "you just can't lose" than a CD Recorder may be in order! (That will copy up to 700 MB of data)
If you have more data than that (You could put it on several CDs) or you could go to a DVD Writer, tape backup or extra hard drive!
Note: It is important to remember that the question is.... When will my hard drive crash? NOT IF my hard drive will crash!!
Back up your critical data SOMEHOW and frequently!
CD Writer suggestion
If your backup needs aren’t too extensive (i.e., you don’t have to back up 8 gigs of data) and you’ve already got a CD-RW drive in your system, there’s no need to go out shopping for other backup hardware.
The media is inexpensive - even with the recent settling out of the blank CD-R
price free fall, they still sell for change, and blank CD-RWs can be had for less than $1 each.
Single-use CD-Rs are best for burning data that won’t be changed (such as your
old Master’s thesis) or for storing drive images under 650MB in size. CD-RWs
on the other hand, can be rewritten to anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000 times
depending on their quality and the care of storage. High quality CD-RW disks
and high end drives can handle data backups at decent enough speeds for your
weekly backups. At the end of day Friday, just drag and drop your backup
folder to a CD-RW and let it spin away. You can burn a more permanent CD-R
to periodically take to your off-site location (they’re less susceptible to problems
from adverse external conditions).
