This month, we present a 3-part series on data backup.
What is Data Backup?
Data backup involves storing files from your computer to another location. In this way, if there is ever any loss of data on your computer, you still have your backup in order to restore those files. In the world of computers loss of data can range from a minor inconvenience (corrupted programs that can be reloaded from original CDs) to devastating (your Excel tax files for the last 5 years). While there are possibilities to recover data after a disaster it is far easier to restore your files from backup than any attempt to find your data on a damaged hard drive.
Why do I want to backup my data?
Data backup is easy to do and can save you great amounts of time as well as ensure that your data is secure in the case of disaster. Data recovery is a very difficult, time consuming and expensive process, and it is not even assured that you will be able to recover your data from a system crash.
Backup does not take much time, as it is easy to put your files onto another medium. It is not too expensive, depending upon what mediums you use to backup your data. There are many different options for data backup, and you will have to choose the one that is best for you.
What is the best data backup option for me?
Floppy disks have essentially become obsolete. They are slow to access, easily damaged by heat, dust and humidity. Their capacity is also very low (1 CD can hold the equivalent of 500 floppy disks).
Today there are much more efficient and robust options to store your data. Technologies such as CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, USB attached drives, network attached storage (NAS) devices and even Internet drives.
All the above can hold far more data than a 3.5 inch floppy disk.
One of the most popular data backup tools is the USB flash drive (also called USB keys or Thumbdrives). These key-chain sized drives can hold up to a 16GB or more of data. That’s the equivalent of 23 CDs or 4 DVDs in the palm of your hand! They will not scratch or break easily which is great if you like carrying your backups with you.
You can purchase a USB flash drive for as little as $20, and it will plug directly into you computer’s USB port and be used immediately by dragging your files into it’s icon.
Another popular way to backup your data is to store them on blank CDs or DVDs (known as CD-R and DVD-R). They are very inexpensive for the amount of data they can hold, costing less than a dollar a disk.
The only downside is they can only be used once. The space on a blank CD or DVD cannot be overwritten, but you can keep adding new files until all the available space is used if you create a “multisession” disc.
Once the disc is closed off or “finalised”, you can access data from the disc, but you cannot write any more data to it. As a way to archive your data, CDs and DVDs are great because they are low cost, and do not fail like hard disks as they have no moving parts.
You can get “rewritable” CDs and DVDs but they tend to cost up to five times more and each time you want to rewrite the disc, you have to format it, meaning that you will lose all data previously stored on the disc.
NAS (Network Attached Storage) is another way to store your backups. NAS is ideal for a family or home office situation where more than one person needs to access the data.
If you have shared Internet at home, you already have the necessary hardware to accommodate a NAS device. Most have a web interface built in, allowing you to manage the device, security settings and create scheduled backups.
Next month we will look at traditional backup software and more advanced forms of backup like imaging to allow you to restore an entire Windows system back to working order.
SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB drives are the perfect companion to this month’s article.
You must log in to post a comment.