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.
7) Buy a 100MB zip drive if you need limited storage capability (less than 1GB).An external parallel port or even USB Zip drive will provide versatility as well as portability.You should consider buying a 250MB Zip drive if your storage needs are moderate (a few GB).
Buy an internal zip drive if you will only use the drive for backup and you are able to install it by yourself (installation fees add up).
9) Buy a CD-RW drive if your storage needs are more moderate and you will regularly back up more than 500MB worth of data.
10) Consider buying a Jaz drive or perhaps even a tape backup drive if you will be backing up large amounts of data on a regular basis.
11) Buy an external hard disk if you will need a lot of space, wont be keeping your old backups and dont need portability.
12) If you require additional security, data protection and the ability to recover your data quickly then online data backup should be a serious consideration.
