| If you have read the previous articles of the "Backup | | | | reliable storage media used today. They are compact, |
| How-To's" series, so far you have learned why using | | | | inexpensive and have very suitable capacity for |
| special backup software is much more profitable than | | | | regular backups. In most cases 700MB of a CD disc |
| doing backups manually. The next question is | | | | and 4,7GB of a DVD disc is enough to save backups |
| choosing the most appropriate storage media for | | | | of new data for several days or weeks (depends on |
| different backup strategies. In this article we will | | | | your particular computer activities). On the bad side, |
| discuss main approaches for storing backups and the | | | | if you want to back up really large sets of data (e.g. |
| balance between media's reliability, accessibility, | | | | HDD image backup), changing and numbering multiple |
| convenience and price. | | | | discs may appear very tiresome. As regards |
| Magnetic Tape | | | | vulnerability of DVD backup, it is the same as with |
| Magnetic tapes began to be used in early 1960's - it | | | | hard disks: since optical media are usually kept near |
| was a huge step forward from punch cards and | | | | computer they don't protect data from destruction |
| simplest hard drives. Because of their low cost, | | | | caused by natural disasters like fire. |
| convenience and scalability tape backups can still be | | | | Another point of consideration is high density optical |
| met in some enterprises. However, they inevitably | | | | discs of new generation, namely Blu-Ray and |
| pass into history: most today's enterprise backup | | | | HD-DVD. They seem to be very promising in terms |
| solutions don't support tape drives, and they are | | | | of backup as they can fit up to 100GB of data. |
| never included in backup software for home. | | | | However, burning devices for them are not very |
| There are several problems with tapes. Firstly, they | | | | widespread yet and there is no statistics available on |
| are not very reliable and copies stored on them are | | | | their use in the field of backup. |
| hardly verifiable. Statistically, 34% of companies | | | | Remote Storage |
| never test their tape backups, and of those that do, | | | | The basic idea of remote backup is to store your |
| 77% find errors of different kinds and sizes. Then, | | | | data on a distant computer which is not subject to |
| they can be used for full backup only - reading all | | | | disasters that may happen at your site. Today there |
| tapes and determining data that has changed is | | | | are many online backup services which are ready to |
| practically undoable. Finally, they are badly | | | | lease space on their hard drives (or more usually in a |
| transportable and must be stored in a special room | | | | sort of a distributed storage system), guaranteeing |
| under mild conditions. | | | | absolute security of your data. Some of them |
| External Drives (including external HDDs, USB, | | | | provide only disk space and remote access to it, |
| FireWire and Flash drives) | | | | while other also offer online backup software for |
| Backing up data to another hard drive or a RAID | | | | easier data management. Generally, remote servers |
| (redundant array of inexpensive disks) is a good | | | | are acknowledged to provide the safest and most |
| decision if you want to always have your backups at | | | | reliable, but at the same time the most pricy storage |
| hand. One of big advantages of having a clone of | | | | for backups. |
| your hard disk is that if your main HDD fails, you can | | | | When choosing where to store your data, follow a |
| instantly plug in the other one and keep working | | | | simple rule: most critical data should be kept in the |
| without delay. However, backups stored on an extra | | | | most reliable place. For example, the following |
| hard drive don't provide protection from theft or fire | | | | combination may work quite well: writing weekly |
| (unless you always carry the drive with you). Also, | | | | system backup on an external hard drive, plus |
| the price of an external hard disk is much higher than, | | | | transferring daily documents backup to an FTP |
| say, price of a pack of DVDs. | | | | server. When you project a backup plan, double |
| Optical Discs | | | | check that your backups are made regularly and data |
| CD and DVD discs are one of the most popular and | | | | is protected against all sources of danger. |