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Where to Store a Backup?

Submitted by Backup on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 09:59.
When considering where to store your backup, some important things to consider are how much will you backup, how often, and the costs involved.

It is a good idea to keep at least one backup onsite, for fast restoration in the case of accidental deletion, and at least one backup off-site for safety in case there is a serious disaster such as fire, theft, flood, etc. An offsite backup may involve placing a DVD or external hard drive at a different location. But the easiest and best option for offsite backup is to subscribe to an online backup service.
 

Storage Type Storage Capacity Cost of Device Ongoing Costs Speed Pros Cons
External Hard Drive High Low per gigabyte None Fast Easy to backup, easy to automate. Liable to same damage as master drive if directly connected, and at the same location. Since a virus or lightning strike can corrupt both at the same time.
CD/DVD Low-Medium Low Moderate Slow Portable Burning CD's and DVD's is time consuming.
Solid State Storage, such as memory stick. Low
1GB-2GB		 High per gigabyte None Medium Portable, good for storing small files, such as documents. Low capacity, easily lost or stolen.
Online Backup Medium-High Free to Setup Set monthly fee,
Or even free for up to 2GB.		 Medium Easily accessible,
Can be fully automated,
Off-site, no devices required.		 Large transfers may take a long time.
Other computer connected through network Medium-High Medium None Fast Fast. Software, and technical skill required. If the computer storing the backup is onsite, it is at risk of same dangers as the computer being backed up.
Magnetic Tape High Relatively high Relatively low Medium For large data storage, it's slightly cheaper than storage on a hard disk. Magnetic tapes are more vulnerable to errors. Short storage life.
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