subject: 3 Reasons To Avoid Backing Up To Data Dvd [print this page] Backing up data is vitalBacking up data is vital. When you take into account the millions of pounds needlessly lost every year as a result of companies failing to back up their files, that much is obvious.
However, what's not quite so obvious is what you should back up to, because there are so many choices available. With this in mind, consider these three reasons why you should avoid backing up to DVDs.
Restricted capacity
A standard DVD is 4.7GB in size. An external hard drive, on the other hand, can be ten times, a hundred times, or even a thousand times bigger.
This is important because, as a business, you're likely to have large volumes of data to back up. And it's much more convenient to back up data to one external hard drive than to several DVDs.
For example, 30GB of files would fit comfortably onto a suitably-sized hard drive, but you'd need at least seven discs to achieve the same if you were using DVDs.
And if you did back up using multiple DVDs, your files wouldn't separate themselves perfectly between discs either. Whereas everything would be handily situated in one place if you used an external hard drive, you'd have to manually organise files, so that they fit on individual DVDs.
Needless to say, you'd be much more involved in the process than you should be working out how many discs you needed, buying them and re-jigging your files to fit properly.
Time-consuming process
The physical job of backing up files to DVD is somewhat inefficient because it can't be automated. In other words, you can't schedule backups to initiate and complete themselves automatically, i.e. without your involvement. Why not?
Because you (or someone else) need to be there to oversee the process to manage and manually fit files, and to replace DVDs when they're full. This takes a considerable amount of time.
Add to this the fact that you may have to spend money to buy additional software (some computers don't come equipped with DVD burners or software) and it's easy to see why a third of computer owners have never backed up.
Alternative data backup solutions like external drives and online backup, however, can be scheduled and completed automatically, removing any possibility of user-error and leaving you free to concentrate on other things.
Limited reliability and lifespan
Backing up to DVD can throw up reliability issues both during the process and after it has completed.
For example, you could encounter buffer underruns. A buffer temporarily holds data being transferred from one location to another (in this case, your computer to a DVD).
When data from your computer is fed to this buffer at a slower speed than that at which the DVD is reading it from the buffer, files can become inaccessible.
And even if you come through the burning process unscathed, you can ultimately suffer from the lifespan of the DVD. Although a disc can remain readable for ten years or more, if it gets scratched or broken (both very easy to do), the data will be irretrievable.
Look into backup alternatives
Deciding what format you back up to is a big decision and no one solution is completely flawless.
DVDs do, in fact, offer some advantages, but for small businesses backing up substantial amounts of data, examining alternatives is a must.
Options such as external hard drives or online backup will benefit you more in the long-run, in terms of their storage capacity, time consumption and reliability.
