jamesglewisf
10-22-2000, 12:19 AM
Backup Solutions
You have several options for backups these days. I have tried many. Here are my recommendations.
My favorite approach is the CD-RW drive. Although I am not able to backup an entire 10GB hard disk to one CD, it is faster than a tape backup and feels more secure. I typically don't backup my entire hard drive anyhow. I just backup my document folders and rely on my install CD's for all of my software. For software I have downloaded, I have a special "My Downloads" folder that I backup occassionally. I have never lost an entire disk drive, and I find the document-only solution much faster.
One downside to the document-only backup solution is that some programs store their data in folders with their programs. For instance, many Internet programs, like MS Outlook, do not store their documents in "My Documents." For these applications, I have learned where they store data and backup those folders also. This approach may not be appealing to less-experienced users who would find entire-drive backup solutions safer.
Tape Drives
This is the tried and true approach. No one will fault you for using tape backpups. They are still one of the fastest and highest-capacity backup solutions available. I recommend two different 10GB drives that store 20GB with compression. Both use standard Travan tapes that cost about $40 each. The first is the HP Colorado 20GB tape drive ($341) which connects via your parallel port. It is about 20% slower than the EIDE-based internal Seagate Travan Tapestor 20GB ($259). Both include variations of Veritas (formerly Seagate) Backup Exec, the industry standard. Both of these drives will allow typical users to backup their entire hard disk onto one tape. Read more at www.hp.com/storage and www.seagate.com/products.
With tape backup, you'll want 3-4 tapes that you use on a rotating basis. This helps ensure that you aren't using a warn-out tape as your exclusive backup, plus it allows you to go to several previous tapes to find an old file.
CD-RW drives
The problem with CD-RW drives is that they only store 620-650MB uncompressed. Even using compression, CD-RW drives could require 10 CD's or more to backup a 10GB drive. That's a lot of swapping if you intend to do a full backup. The big advantage of CD-RW drives is their flexiblity. They can be used for archival data storage, creating music CDs, and data transfer. If you have a 15MB file to transfer between PCs, a CD-RW drive is very convenient. Additionally, you can get CD-RW drives in various interfaces, including internal EIDI and SCSI, external SCSI, USB, and IEEE-1394 Firewire.
The two model's I recommend are the external SCSI Plextor PlexWriter 12/4/32 ($499) and the internal EIDE Sony Spressa Professional CRX140E/CH2 ($200). The Plextor is also available in an internal EIDE version (12/10/32). Likewise, the Sony is also available in a SCSI version (CRX140S/C). I believe you will have to purchase a SCSI card or SCSI PC card for the Plextor. Adaptec (http://www.adaptec.com) makes the best SCSI cards and they cost $75-100. Read more at www.sony.com and www.plextor.com/english.
There are two media options for CD-RW drives: CD-R blanks for $1 each or CD-RW blanks for $3-5 each. CD-R discs can only be written to once, but are considerably faster than their re-writeable cousins the CD-RW.
DVD-RAM
There is no clear standard yet for DVD-writeable drives. I would wait.
Internet Backup
If you have a fast Internet connection (DSL, cable, or faster), you might want to consider online backups. The downsides are speed and storage space available. Unless you have very little to backup, I'd go with either tape or CD-RW backups. Sky Desk (www.backup.com (http://www.backup.com)) costs $99 per year for 100MB of storage or $300 per year for 500MB storage. SafeGuard Interactive (www.sgii.com (http://www.sgii.com) costs $10 per month, with up to 1GB of transfer per day in either direction.
Jazz Drives
I've owned three Jazz drives, and they all failed within about 1 year of the end of the warranty, rendering my backups useless. I would avoid them at all costs.
You have several options for backups these days. I have tried many. Here are my recommendations.
My favorite approach is the CD-RW drive. Although I am not able to backup an entire 10GB hard disk to one CD, it is faster than a tape backup and feels more secure. I typically don't backup my entire hard drive anyhow. I just backup my document folders and rely on my install CD's for all of my software. For software I have downloaded, I have a special "My Downloads" folder that I backup occassionally. I have never lost an entire disk drive, and I find the document-only solution much faster.
One downside to the document-only backup solution is that some programs store their data in folders with their programs. For instance, many Internet programs, like MS Outlook, do not store their documents in "My Documents." For these applications, I have learned where they store data and backup those folders also. This approach may not be appealing to less-experienced users who would find entire-drive backup solutions safer.
Tape Drives
This is the tried and true approach. No one will fault you for using tape backpups. They are still one of the fastest and highest-capacity backup solutions available. I recommend two different 10GB drives that store 20GB with compression. Both use standard Travan tapes that cost about $40 each. The first is the HP Colorado 20GB tape drive ($341) which connects via your parallel port. It is about 20% slower than the EIDE-based internal Seagate Travan Tapestor 20GB ($259). Both include variations of Veritas (formerly Seagate) Backup Exec, the industry standard. Both of these drives will allow typical users to backup their entire hard disk onto one tape. Read more at www.hp.com/storage and www.seagate.com/products.
With tape backup, you'll want 3-4 tapes that you use on a rotating basis. This helps ensure that you aren't using a warn-out tape as your exclusive backup, plus it allows you to go to several previous tapes to find an old file.
CD-RW drives
The problem with CD-RW drives is that they only store 620-650MB uncompressed. Even using compression, CD-RW drives could require 10 CD's or more to backup a 10GB drive. That's a lot of swapping if you intend to do a full backup. The big advantage of CD-RW drives is their flexiblity. They can be used for archival data storage, creating music CDs, and data transfer. If you have a 15MB file to transfer between PCs, a CD-RW drive is very convenient. Additionally, you can get CD-RW drives in various interfaces, including internal EIDI and SCSI, external SCSI, USB, and IEEE-1394 Firewire.
The two model's I recommend are the external SCSI Plextor PlexWriter 12/4/32 ($499) and the internal EIDE Sony Spressa Professional CRX140E/CH2 ($200). The Plextor is also available in an internal EIDE version (12/10/32). Likewise, the Sony is also available in a SCSI version (CRX140S/C). I believe you will have to purchase a SCSI card or SCSI PC card for the Plextor. Adaptec (http://www.adaptec.com) makes the best SCSI cards and they cost $75-100. Read more at www.sony.com and www.plextor.com/english.
There are two media options for CD-RW drives: CD-R blanks for $1 each or CD-RW blanks for $3-5 each. CD-R discs can only be written to once, but are considerably faster than their re-writeable cousins the CD-RW.
DVD-RAM
There is no clear standard yet for DVD-writeable drives. I would wait.
Internet Backup
If you have a fast Internet connection (DSL, cable, or faster), you might want to consider online backups. The downsides are speed and storage space available. Unless you have very little to backup, I'd go with either tape or CD-RW backups. Sky Desk (www.backup.com (http://www.backup.com)) costs $99 per year for 100MB of storage or $300 per year for 500MB storage. SafeGuard Interactive (www.sgii.com (http://www.sgii.com) costs $10 per month, with up to 1GB of transfer per day in either direction.
Jazz Drives
I've owned three Jazz drives, and they all failed within about 1 year of the end of the warranty, rendering my backups useless. I would avoid them at all costs.