Is DVD Storage An Attractive Alternative For Your Computer
Title: Is DVD Storage An Attractive Alternative For Your Computer
Backup?

Author: Per Strandberg

Article: Copyright © 2005 Per Strandberg

If you have a computer for home use or for your business and
don't take comprehensive backup for full protection then you are
in the danger-zone. Maybe you do not take any backup at all.

You can find in Windows a basic backup utility which are
installed during the installation.

I should say for all Windows…,but in fact it is not included
during the installation of Windows XP Home Edition.

It is as if Microsoft thinks that data protection is not
necessary for home computers and computers used by small
businesses.

It is true that hard drives are becoming less prone to hard disk
crashes.

But, if you consider not only hard disk crashes, but also virus
infection, theft plus other treats, then you realize the
importance of implementing a full-proof backup strategy for your
computer.

Today many computers are equipped with a DVD burner, yet most do
not use it to manage their vital data backup. The amount of data
you can store on a single DVD is several Giga Byte.

There are many types of backup you can make.

Here are the steps that I take myself to fully secure my data
against data loss:

1. Disk image backup. I use a disk image backup software and
make a complete image backup of the disk on consecutive DVDs. I
also create an emergency rescue CD.

If I have a hard disk crash I’ll use this emergency CD to boot
from.

But, first I have to install and setup a new hard disk that is
working.

Then I can recreate the data directly back from this backup
stored on the DVDs. This work is made fast and without the need
to spend time installing both the operation system and the
backup software. Everything is instead copied directly into the
hard disk from the DVD’s.

2. Full hard disk backup. I also use a data backup software and
create a full backup of the hard disk on consecutive DVD’s.

This is a standard disk backup. With this backup I'm able to
restore any files and/or folders. I can also move the data to
another computer.

3. Regular scheduled backup of files and folder. Here I use the
same software product I use for the full disk backup. I make
with this software regular schedule backups of the files and
folders I work with.

In my case they include My Documents, Outlook emails and other
files that are modified over time. I do this by keeping a
permanent rewritable DVD inside the DVD burner. I then rotate a
number of DVD’s for this purpose so I can keep copies away from
the computer.

Whenever I install important new programs from the Internet or I
make other major changes to my system I’ll also create a new
disk image backup and a full hard disk backup.

You should use a DVD burner that is built for rewritable DVDs.
Unfortunately there are several competing DVD standards on the
market.

The DVD-R, DVD-R and DVD-RAM standards supports DVDs which only
can be written to once and can’t be reused and those standards
should be avoided.

The DVD player should instead support at least one rewritable
DVDs standard. Either DVD-RW or DVD+RW.

Conclusion: I use regular schedule backup to backup the data
files I work with on a daily basis.

I’ll make a disk image backup so that in case of a hard disk
failure I will be back in business fast.

I also create a full disk backup so that I will be able to
restore individual files or folders. It makes it also possible
to move the data to another computer.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Per Strandberg specializing
in data security and data storage and have a site about data
backup technology at ==> http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com

Discover more about DVD storage
at ==> http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com/dvd-backup-and-copy.html

Learn more about how to backup from Windows at ==> href="http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com/window-backup.html"
target="_blank">http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com/window-bac
kup.html

About the author:
Per Strandberg specializing in data security and data storage.

- posted by J @ 11:26 AM