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1. USB Flash Drives
Although I am not recommending that flash drives be used for the actual
data storage, they are a convenient means of transferring data from one
computer to another. Important files can be quickly loaded onto a device
such as the MINIDISK-512-DGRY-CS USB 2.0 Flash Drive, and transported to
another computer for safe keeping. Installation and operation is
extremely simple, and other than perhaps having to install a software
driver, the use of a USB flash drive is a matter of having an available
USB port on your computer. Just about every computer produced over the
last several years has USB ports included, with more modern systems
supporting the USB 2.0 standard. USB 2.0 allows for data transfer rates
of up to 480 MB/s, which is a tremendous improvement over the original
USB speed limit of 12 MB/s, and allows a user to fill their drives with
data in a relatively short period of time.
Although the storage capacity of flash drives has increased greatly over
the last year or so, users are still limited to common sizes of 512MB
and 1GB. Mass storage is obviously not an option, but even 512MB may be
enough to backup your "My Documents" folder, several albums of MP3s, or
other important files to be stored elsewhere.
2. CD and DVD Writers/Re-Writers
The falling prices of CD and DVD writers/re-writers have made them a
staple of just about every modern computer. These devices can typically
be found installed in a computer case, but external devices supporting
USB 2.0 or Firewire are available for greater flexibility and ease of
installation.
A combination drive, such as the NU Technology DBW-521, will provide the
user a high speed CD reader/writer, as well as a DVD reader, for under
$40. The extremely low price of the drive (and the blank media) makes
for an inexpensive means of creating data backups, and the re-writable
media increases the convenience by allowing the same disc to be erased
and reused many times. The main limitation of using a CD writer for data
backups is that the discs are generally limited to a capacity of 700MB
per disc. Not nearly enough for a full backup, but adequate for
archiving key files.
The popularity of DVD writers/re-writers has surged thanks to dropping
prices, and they are pushing the stand alone CD burner towards
extinction. DVD media affords the user far more storage capacity than a
CD, and DVD burners can generally burn CDs as wells as DVDs. The recent
availability of double layer DVD burners, such as the Sony DW-D22A-DO-N,
represents a large boost in the capacity of writable DVDs, taking the
previous limit of 4.7GB per disc and nearly doubling it to 8.5GB.
With proper storage, CD/DVD media can provide long term storage that can
not be jeopardized by hardware failure. The data on a CD or DVD can
easily be read by just about any computer, making it a good choice for
archiving files that aren't excessively large.
3. External Hard Drives
As the name might imply, external hard drives are generally the same
type of drive you might find inside your system, but housed in a
smaller, external enclosure of its own. The enclosure will feature at
least one data interface (such as Firewire, USB, or Ethernet), and the
capacity is only limited by the size of hard drives presently available
and the user's budget.
The Ximeta NetDisk is an example of an external hard drive that provides
a user the option of connecting an additional 80GB, 120GB, or 160GB of
storage to their system by using either a USB 2.0 or Ethernet
connection. Installation for such a device is rather simple, and may
involve the installation of some basic software, as well as making the
necessary connections between the computer and the external enclosure.
The capacity of external hard drives makes them ideal for backing up
large volumes of data, and many of these devices simplify the process by
including software (or hardware) features to automate the backup.
For example, some Seagate External drives feature a "one-button" backup
option right on the case.In addition to being a convenient method of
backing up large volumes of files locally, most external hard drives are
compact enough to be portable. The inclusion of a common data transfer
interface, such as USB, allows an external hard drive to be connected to
just about any modern computer for data transfer, or for more than one
computer to share the external hard drive as a back up.
4. Additional Hard Drives
By simply adding an additional hard drive to you system, you can protect
yourself from data loss by copying it from your primary drive to your
secondary drive. The installation of a second hard drive isn't
difficult, but does require a basic understanding of the inner working
of a computer, which may scare off some users. We do offer a "how-to"
section on our site for many tasks such as installing a hard drive into
a computer system.
To take the installation of a second hard drive to another level of
security and reliability, the hard drives may be installed in a RAID
array. RAID stands for a Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive)
Disks, and can be configured in several manners. A thorough discussion
of RAID and all of its variations would be an article all by itself, but
what may be of interest to this discussion is what is known as RAID 1. A
RAID 1 array requires two hard drives of equal size to be installed on a
RAID controller, which will then mirror one drive to the other in real
time. Many motherboards now come with RAID controllers onboard, but the
addition of a PCI slot controller card, such as the Silicon Image
Sil0680, is an inexpensive purchase that will add RAID to any system.
With a RAID 1 array in place, if one hard drive should ever fail, the
system won't miss a best by continuing to run on the remaining good
drive, and alert the user that one drive may need to be replaced.
5. Online Storage
Online services, such as Xdrive, allow users to upload their files to a
server for safe keeping. Although it may be convenient to have the data
available wherever an internet connection is available, there are a few
limitations.
The services generally charge a monthly fee relative to the amount of
storage space required. At Xdrive, for example, 5GB of storage costs
$9.95 per month, which can quickly add up to more than one would spend
on any of the other options discussed.
Security is supposed to be very tight on these services, but no matter
how secure it may seem, it is still just a password keeping prying eyes
from your potentially sensitive documents.
The speed of your internet connection will also weigh heavily on the
convenience of your backup, and no matter what type of connection you
have; it can't compete with local data transfer rates.
Final Words
Although not a comprehensive list of options available for backing up
your data, the five items listed provide some simple and relatively
affordable means to ensure that your data is not lost. Data loss is an
extremely frustrating and potentially costly situation, but one that can
be avoided.
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