It used to be that you would backup everything on your computer by using floppy disks.Today, when one sound or graphics file can easily be larger than the capacity of a disk, it would be impractical to back up even you documents using floppies, let alone your applications.  Luckily there are better options including Zip disks, CD writers, tape drives, external hard drives and even online backup services.You can also compress all of your backed up files so that they will take up less space.Follow the following pointers and you will be able to find the media that is best suited to your needs.

1) Determine the approximate quantity and file sizes you will be backing up.

2) Figure out the quantity and file sizes of any documents or other applications you want to archive permanantly to a backup device or removable media.

3) Plan for that amount of information to grow in the future.

4) You should figure out your budget for a backup storage device and removable media to use with it.

5) Consider if you plan to archive photographs or scanned files, need portability of the media or the drive itself, wish to record music for playback on some other equipment, or need ease of use.Weigh these factors along with your need to back up the files.

6) Work out the cost per MB of media for each drive you are considering.zip drives themselves are cheap however the disks are not.

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