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. |
