In the 'old' days, we had only a few choices for data storage. For most people, floppy disks were amassed in piles and stacks and forever tucked in the dark spots of closets and attics until <gulp>, they might be needed. Some lucky souls had the 'advantage' of a tape drive system that would hold many, many times the data of floppies.

The 'floppy of today' seems to be the CD. Whereas the standard floppy holds 1.4 MB, the standard CD will hold up to 700 MB and is much more durable. The advantages for a CD backup is that they are cheap (the last pack I purchased cost a dime each), durable and don't take a lot of room. The disadvantages are that they don't hold much (ok, it seems like a lot, but when you start archiving music and large data sets, 700MB gets used up quickly), and the process of creating a backup CD can be confusing.

The newer disc format of DVD circumvents the size issue by giving us up to 4gb of storage or almost six times as much as a CD. It still has the problem of being potentially confusing in use and are still somewhat expensive (last I saw for blanks was around $1.50 each).

For many companies, the tape backup is still the most viable, you can automate the backup process and tapes can be purchased in very large capacities. Disadvantages here are that initial hardware and media costs can be quite high for a good tape system, and tapes are a bit prone to damage.

In network situations, we also recommend the use of 'drive to drive' backups, where the contents of the server (or main shared drive) is automatically backed up to another drive on the network. Current drive prices make this a very affordable and easy to manage system. The disadvantage here is that the backup remains on-site.

For many companies and home situations, a very elegant solution is to utilize an external USB drive (or Firewire if you are so fortunate as to have a connection available). Again, the drive pricing is making these 'whole drive' backups very viable. External drives that fit in your pocket start around $125 these days.

Obviously, there are many choices to consider when looking at backup scenarios. The important issues are to have a consistent, reliable system in place that you have actually tested.... Please give us a call if you would like to get some help with a backup solution that works for your situation.

Recycle Computers and other Electronics 

Office Depot, in partnership with Hewlett Packard is offering to accept one computer system or one electronic product per day per customer now through September 6th at 'all stores in the continental U.S.' There is no charge for the program. If you have an old system that is no longer of any use, please take advantage of this offer to dispose of it.

For program details go to www.officedepot.com/recycle

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