| Article Index |
|---|
| Backup Devices - A Breif Rundown. |
| Page 2 |
| Page 3 |
| Page 4 |
| Page 5 |
| Page 6 |
| Page 7 |
| Page 8 |
| All Pages |
Nowadays there really is no excuse for not having at least some of your data backed up on some form of removable or external media. Backing up is not something that is only done by the network administrator at your office every afternoon, it is something you should (read: MUST) all partake in at home as well.
Right, let me start by saying I have been in the PC industry for 8 years (not bad when you’re only 25) and I have dealt with a lot of faulty parts being returned for warranty. And it never ceases to amaze me when someone brings a faulty hard drive in, and asks “Are you able to get my data off there? It’s REALLY important!” As though their very life depended on it.
Although it depends on the fault the drive has, my answer is unfortunately almost always “No, you’ll have to restore it from your backup” which is always responded to with “I don’t have a backup” - *sigh* There are data recovery services available in the market, but they are extremely expensive, and cannot guarantee results.
Nowadays there really is no excuse for not having at least some of your data backed up on some form of removable or external media. Backing up is not something that is only done by the network administrator at your office every afternoon, it is something you should (read: MUST) all partake in at home as well.
In this article I’ll take you through a basic rundown of the different types of backup devices available as well as the pros and cons of each to help you make the best choice for your situation.
Floppy Disk (1.44MB)
Yes they do still exist and you can still buy them, but their functionality is now extremely limited. Still great for students to save their Word Document assignments on, but not a whole lot more, you won’t even get half an MP3 on one of these things.
Pros: Cheap, Universal
Cons: Extremely limited space when compared to other options, not too reliable – remember, you can corrupt these with a fridge magnet.
Writeable CDs (CD-R or RW) – 800MB
These have been the home backup workhorse for the past decade, even when they were surpassed by writeable DVDs, they’ve stood their ground due to their extremely low cost and the fact that every PC incorporates a CD-ROM drive, and has done for years.
Not counting early CD-Writer technology which would more often than not turn your then $10+ blank CD into nothing more than a drinks coaster if you dared to touch the mouse whilst the CD was burning, they have now become very reliable.
The latest CD-Writer hardware and software, with buffer under-run protection, makes it almost impossible to churn out a dud-disc. One point to note though, is if you plan to keep your data on a CD for years into the future, be sure to spend the extra couple of dollars and buy high quality CDs, as the dye in the cheap stuff can and will deteriorate over time, leaving your backup useless.
Pros: Cheap, Universal, reasonable storage size, Reliable when cared for.
Cons: Limited size when compared to DVD’s, easily damaged, CD-R’s can only be written once, and CD-RWs are a pain to re-write compared to other backup products on the market.
Writeable DVDs (DVD-R or RW) – 4.7GB for Single Layer, 8.5GB for Dual
Extremely similar to writeable CDs in terms of functionality and convenience, DVDs offer almost 6x the storage space of CD’s when using single layer discs, and over 10x the space when using dual-layer discs.
In the last few years and price of blank media has fallen almost to the price of CDs, making DVDs a much better ‘bang for your buck’ solution, with the vast majority of new PCs being fitted with a DVD-Writer or at the very least a reader, makes the DVD a very universal option.
As with CDs, spend the extra money on the good stuff if you expect it to last for years. What type you get (i.e. +R or -R) doesn’t really matter anymore, as every writer on the market now supports both standards.
Pros: Cheap, universal, good storage size, reliable when cared for.
Cons: Easily damaged, DVD-Rs can only be written once, and DVD-RWs are a pain to re-write compared to other products on the market. Some compatibility problems with dual-layer discs still exist, best to stick with single layer.
USB Flash Drives
These little USB flash drives (or Thumb Drives as they’re often referred to) are a brilliant invention and currently the most popular option for personal backups and transferring data.
Plug one of these into your Windows 2000/XP/Vista machine and they almost instantly pop-up under ‘My Computer’ as another hard drive for you to use. Simply copy and paste your files to the new drive and you’re done. With the speed that current USB2.0 devices operate at (480Mb/s) everything is done in a flash.
Current flash drives range in size from 64MB up to 16GB!!! and all operate at USB2.0 speed. They come in a massive range of styles and colours and many are small enough to fit on your keychain.
Pros: Small physical size, good storage size, fast transfer rate, rugged and reliable, universal
Cons: Cheaper no-name devices are said to be less reliable, so again, don’t go cheap, make sure you buy a decent brand.
Portable/External Hard Disk Drives
External HDDs have been around since the start of the computer age, but what we’re talking about here is small, portable units, usually utilising a standard desktop or laptop hard drive.
There are two ways to get one of these devices, the first is to buy a preassembled external drive, such as the Maxtor One-Touch range, where all you have to do is plug it into your PC, through either Firewire or USB and away you go. These preassembled type drives will often be accompanied by backup software, usually with an option to press a single button on the drive and automatically perform a pre-configured backup.
The second option is to buy an external drive case, such as something from the Vantec Nexstar range, usually ranging from $20-$80 depending on what connections you want (USB or Firewire or both) and what type of drive it is made for (2.5” laptop drive, or 3.5” desktop drive, IDE or Serial-ATA interface etc…) and then put your own drive in it. The functionality is pretty much the same, and the cost per gigabyte is usually a lot lower than pre-made drives, but you will miss out on the backup software, which just means you will have to drag and drop the files into the drive yourself whenever you want to backup. For most people, this isn’t a big issue, and the money you save is worth the extra hassle.
Pros: Big storage space available, low cost per GB, fast transfer, universal connectivity.
Cons: Easily damaged (like any HDD it can’t be dropped), often bulky, lots of cables.
Tape Drives
Tape drives are by far the best option for write-once-read-rarely and large scale backups. Whilst the tape drives themselves are quite expensive (from $500 to $5000+) the tape media itself represents decent value for money in the dollar per GB stakes.
Tape media is widely regarded as extremely reliable, as well as the tape drive hardware, and quite frankly it would want to be, as a 200/400GB LTO-2 tape drive starts at around $2200 inc GST. Thankfully the media is reasonably priced around $45-$50 per cartridge.
Currently, tape drives range in storage capacity from 20/40GB up to 400/800GB per tape, depending more or less on how much you’re willing to pay for the drive hardware and tape media.The two values represent the native capacity (uncompressed data) and the maximum compressed capacity (based on 2:1 compression). As many types of data are already highly compressed these days, you will rarely fit anywhere near the full compressed capacity onto a backup tape. When purchasing a tape drive, it is usually not necessary to purchase any additional and costly backup software, as any Microsoft Windows NT/2000 or later operating system has built in backup software that will work with almost any tape backup device, and allow complete or incremental backups as well as allow for spanning across multiple tapes, and scheduled backups.Tape backups are just that, backups, they aren’t widely used in the consumer market for data transfer (between locations) like many of the above methods are. So make sure you take this into account when making your decision.
Pros: Reliable, value for money if doing large backups, current technology has very fast transfer rates.
Cons: Large setup costs.
Conclusion:
Hopefully the above guide will help you make a decision on what method is suitable for you. Again I suggest that everyone should have at least some form of backup for their most critical data, as accidents and hardware failures can happen and most likely WILL happen to you at some point in the future.
Also breif = brief!