The data on your hard drive is the most critical item inside your computer, & the only item which cannot get replaced. It may be an undesirable hassle & expense to replace a defective memory module, monitor, or processor, but there is no replacing data time lost.
In addition to the chance of a simple hard drive failure, the threat of web borne worms & viruses has become an increasing risk to data loss or corruption. Although you may not be able to provide absolute protection to your hard drive, there is various ways that you can be positive that the data on your hard drive is protected. Methods of backing up your data are summarized below...
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 computer to another. Important files can be quickly loaded onto a tool such as the MINIDISK-512-DGRY-CS USB.0 Flash Drive, & transported to another computer for safe keeping. Installation & operation is simple, & other than perhaps having to put in a program driver, the use of a USB flash drive is a matter of having an available USB port on your computer. Every computer produced over the last several years has USB ports included, with more modern systems supporting the USB.0 standard. USB.0 allows for data transfer rates of up to 480 MB/s, which is an incredible improvement over the original USB speed limit of 12 MB/s, & allows a user to fill their drives with data in a comparatively short timeframe.
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 & 1GB. Mass storage is obviously not an option, but even 512MB may be to backup your "My Documents" folder, several albums of MP3s, or other important files to be stored elsewhere.
2. CD & DVD Writers/Re-Writers
The falling prices of CD & DVD writers/re-writers have made them a staple of every modern computer. These devices can usually be found installed in a computer case, but outside devices supporting USB.0 or Firewire are available for greater flexibility & ease of installation.
A combination drive, such as the NU Expertise DBW-521, will provide the user a high speed CD reader/writer, & a DVD reader, for under $40. The low cost of the drive (& the blank media) makes for an cheap means of generating data backups, & the re-writable media increases the convenience by allowing the same disc to be erased & reused lots of times. The main limitation of using a CD writer for data backups is that the discs are usually limited to a capacity of 700MB per disc. Not for a full backup, but adequate for archiving key files.
The popularity of DVD writers/re-writers has surged thanks to dropping prices, & they are pushing the stand alone CD burner towards extinction. DVD media affords the user far more storage capacity than a CD, & DVD burners can usually burn CDs as wells as DVDs. The recent availability of double layer DVD burners, such as the Sony DW-D22A-DO-N, represents a immense boost in the capacity of writable DVDs, taking the earlier limit of.7GB per disc & 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 fundamentally be read by any computer, making it a sensible choice for archiving files that are not excessively large.
3. Outside Hard Drives
As the name might insinuate, outside hard drives are usually the same type of drive you might find inside your process, but housed in a smaller, outside enclosure of its own. The enclosure will feature at least data interface (such as Firewire, USB, or Ethernet), & the capacity is only limited by the size of hard drives presently obtainable & the user's budget.
The Ximeta NetDisk is an example of an outside hard drive that provides a user the choice of connecting an additional 80GB, 120GB, or 160GB of storage to their process by using either a USB.0 or Ethernet connection. Installation for such a gizmo is simple, & may involve the installation of some basic application, as well as making the necessary connections between the computer & the outside enclosure.
The capacity of outside hard drives makes them ideal for backing up large volumes of data, & lots of of these devices simplify the process by including application (or hardware) features to automate the backup.
For example, some Seagate Outside drives feature a "one-button" backup option right on the case.In addition to being a convenient process of backing up giant volumes of files locally, most outside hard drives are compact to be transportable. The inclusion of a common data transfer interface, such as USB, allows an outside hard drive to be connected to any modern computer for data transfer, or for over computer to share the outside hard drive as a back up.
4. Additional Hard Drives
By fundamentally adding an additional hard drive to you process, 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 is not difficult, but does need a basic understanding of the inner working of a computer, which may scare off some users. They do offer a "how-to" section on our site for lots of tasks such as installing a hard drive in to a computer process.
To take the installation of a second hard drive to another level of security & reliability, the hard drives may be installed in a RAID array. RAID stands for a Redundant Array of Independent (or Cheap) Disks, & can be configured in several manners. A thorough discussion of RAID & all of its variations would be an article all by itself, but what may be of interest to this discussion is what is named RAID. A RAID array requires hard drives of equal size to be installed on a RAID controller, which will then mirror drive to the other in actual time. Lots of motherboards now come with RAID controllers onboard, but the addition of a PCI slot controller card, such as the Silicon Picture Sil0680, is an cheap purchase that will add RAID to any process. With a RAID array in place, if hard drive ought to ever fail, the process won't miss a best by continuing to run on the remaining nice drive, & alert the user that drive may need to get replaced.
5. Online Storage
Online services, such as Xdrive, permit users to upload their files to a server for safe keeping. Although it may be convenient to have the data available wherever a web connection is available, there is a few limitations.
Security is meant to be tight on these services, but no matter how secure it may appear, it is still a password keeping prying eyes from your potentially sensitive documents.
The speed of your net connection will also weigh heavily on the convenience of your backup, & no matter what type of connection you have; it cannot compete with local data transfer rates.
Final Words
Although not a comprehensive list of options available for backing up your data, the items listed provide some simple & comparatively affordable means to make positive that your data is not lost. Data loss is an frustrating & potentially expensive situation, but that can be avoided.
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