backing up

[don]

Hi

i am looking at backing up my hard drive (windows 2000 pro)

I have got about 20gb of data to backup.

What are some of my options? eg. tapes, dvd, usb hard
drive and what are the disadvantages and advantages of
these?

Is it difficult to get windows 2000 to backup to dvd?

thanks

 

[Paul Dietrich]

Hi

i am looking at backing up my hard drive (windows 2000 pro)

I have got about 20gb of data to backup.

What are some of my options? eg. tapes, dvd, usb hard
drive and what are the disadvantages and advantages of
these?

Is it difficult to get windows 2000 to backup to dvd?

Tapes are always a good option. You can put the whole drive on one.
You'll seed 5 or 6 dvd's per backup.
A usb hard drive is OK. Too.

All of these are good options for your application.

Tapes and dvds have this advantage over a usb drive: if the usb drive
fails, it's unusable. If a tape or dvd drive fails, the media is still
fine.

Tapes can degrade in long term storage.
Tapes and hard drives can be erased.

A dvd backup requires repeatedly switching disks.

It's a bit like a game of rock-paper-scissors, isn't it?