Choosing a Backup System

Zip Drives, LS-120 Superfloppy Drives
Disks are easily reusable but prone to failure if mishandled. They are about as reliable as a floppy disk.
Suitable for use when carrying files back and forth where disk reuse is important.
# of disks required to backup a 40GB Hard Disk (best case): 80
Drive and 10 disks: About $250 Drive and two full backups sets: About $1600

CD-Rewritable Drives
CDR are one-time use while CDRW Disks can be reused after a 30-60 minute reformat.
Disks have a long shelf-life for storage and are cheap. Can be used for audio or data.
Suitable for use on data only backups, archival backups or as master disks for others.
# of disks required to backup a 40GB Hard Disk (best case): 30
Drive and 10 CDR disks: About $120 Drive and two full backups sets: About $180

DVD-R Drives
Format is not standardized and disks may not play in all DVD drives.
Disks have a long storage shelf-life. Prices are dropping rapidly.
Some formats are reusable but not portable. Verify compatibility before you buy.
Suitable for use on very large files, multimedia content, and special purpose applications.
# of disks required to backup a 40GB Hard Disk (best case): 5
Drive and 10 DVD-R disks: About $550 Drive and two full backups sets: About $550

Mirrored Hard Drives
$90 - 400 for a kit No additional media required.
20-160 GB Storage per disk Sized to match original hard disk.
Both the primary and mirrored disk are kept syncronized in realtime. Therefore, this solution doesn’t protect against data corruption, virus attacks, deleted files, equipment theft. Use may require additional hardware or software. Recommended for mission-critical computers where downtime must be minimized.
# of disks required to backup a 40GB Hard Disk: 1

Travan Tape Backup Drives
8-120 GB Storage per tape. Tapes are reusable but should be replaced after 40 or so uses.
Very reliable. Drives must be cleaned regularly for long life. Cleaning kits cost $3 / use (10 uses per kit).
Recommended for use as workstation and home PC backups.
# of disks required to backup a 40GB Hard Disk (best case): 1
Drive and two tapes: About $300 Drive and 10 full backups sets: About $900

DAT/DLT Tape Backup Drives
8-120 GB Storage per tape. Tapes are reusable but should be replaced after 40 or so uses.
Extremely reliable. Clean regularly for long life. Cleaning tapes are $0.50 / use (30 uses per tape).
Suitable for use on servers and where data is mission-critical and must be backed up daily.
# of disks required to backup a 40GB Hard Disk (best case): 1
Drive and two tapes: About $700 Drive and two full backups sets: About $700

Summary: Base your choice of a backup system on how important your information is to you. If you can live without your computer for a few days and you aren’t storing anything important on your computer, you can skip full backups and just backup any data files you create. Plan on reinstalling everything on your computer before it will be usable again. Also, anything created or modified since your last backup may be permanently lost.

If your computer is business-critical or is heavily used, a tape backup system is a must. Provided you are running complete backups, you can be up and running again in just a few hours. Mirrored hard drives are also a great precaution. Even though it protects against a smaller number of failures, you might be able to put off your recovery effort until a less critical time.

Having a well-considered backup and recovery plan is an essential part of setting up any backup system. Make sure to periodically test your recovery procedures to ensure that your recovery strategy is functional.

Note: This summary doesn’t address every possible factor and your particular situation might affect any decision about what is best for protecting your computer data. We’d be happy to sit down and discuss your needs in detail to help you maintain and preserve your computer system operation.
Data and general pricing are as of April 24, 2002.