Digital Back-up Media

Below, we have surveyed some of the popular digital storage formats and weighed their comparative merits and demerits.Let us first have a look at the formats prevalent in the market.
Tape Drives – The tape has survived for generations now, in one version or the other. They began with the large, clumsy analogue boxes that have long ago become archive material, but tapes are still around in digital formats. Their first advantage is their inherent durability. Well protected inside their plastic casing, with plenty of storage space, and compatible to all kinds of file formats – they have a lot of advantages. Huge audio visual files that would clog up space anywhere else are safe on tapes. Then there is the cost factor, which alone may be enough to make it a winner. The disadvantages are no less though. Storage is a pain when it comes to tapes, and sharing options can be a nightmare. Storage not only requires space, but also a great deal of temperature and humidity control. However, they are still virus protected, with plenty of space, high quality of preservation, and cheap means of data storage.
Floppy – The floppy was a loser since it had too many disadvantages. The advantages were easier to count - the handy build, ease of use, low cost (once upon a time) and portability. The disadvantages can go on and on, but we may summarise them as very high susceptibility to viruses, extremely small storage space, the ease with which files in it got corrupted, and its inability to accommodate all types of files within its slim folds. The death toll rang when CDs became available in the market at roughly half the price of floppies. The nearest comparison is the replacement of the pager by the mobile. When a technology of mass usage has too many flaws, it will get pushed out of the race.
CD – The CD was too costly and unfriendly to begin with. It could be written on only once, and the drives were painfully slow. All operating systems were not yet comfortable with them, and there were some file types either got corrupted or copied badly. Like the tape, it has been a story of survival through evolution. The CD started winning with the facility to re write, and multi session disks provided better space management. Almost all file types are acceptable in a standard CD now, it can play just about anywhere and most importantly, it is currently the cheapest portable digital storage device in the market.
DVD – The audio visual reproduction quality of CDs containing large media files had never been very satisfactory, in fact, it was frankly bad at most times. The Digital Video Disk was born out of the huge demand of the rapidly expanding audio visual sharing and storage market. DVDs provide better quality for both picture and sound, apart from more space. Now the advantages of RW and mass production have been added to it. However, it also has all the disadvantages of the CD, and is as susceptible to damage through physical means.
USB Drives – USB drives are popular enough to have become household devices faster than the CD. Pen drives can be inserted into USB ports without any special software or separate drive, has lots of space (and are growing larger), are more easy to carry around than even the floppy, is a joy when it comes to sharing files, accommodates almost all file formats and are also becoming cheaper. But they are still comparatively costly, the most virus prone after the floppy, and tops the charts the device that is most convenient to lose.
Portable Hard Drives – Vast space, easy access, accommodation for absolutely any file, inbuilt virus protection and sometimes even an OS, larger memory (therefore less chances of data loss through fragmentation) and the convenience of plug and play – the advantages are too many. But this device is still clumsier than the others, and most importantly – it is also the costliest. Preventing Data Loss Now that we have surveyed the options, the question may come up, how do we ultimately protect our data if all these formats are fallible to a degree? There are three remedies –
We will take good care of our storage devices.
We will take adequate and updated back up.
We can use online and offsite storage spaces for better data protection.
By: James Wallis
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com