DVD Backup As an Option

A Backup Article Contributed by Melissa Larose

DVD Backup As an Option

Have you ever considered DVD as a useful data backup media? If you are a home user you may scoff at this idea considering it a waste of media. Or maybe you just don't know that a DVD writer can be used for more than movies. Or maybe it looks too complicated or you aren't sure how to go about saving backup to a DVD.

DVD Backup Couldn't Be Easier

Using that new DVD Read write drive for something more than movies is possible. Use it also for storing data backups. In a home setting many people forget that their home computer is just a susceptible to hard drive crashes, file corruption or loss, and viruses as the computer you use at work. It's probably a forgotten topic at home because you do not have your own built in IT department to constantly remind you of such things. See, those IT guys aren't so bad.

The truth is you can lose a hard drive or delete a file just as easily at home. Hard drive failure happens all the time due to years of use and its mechanical nature. Backup to another media device like a floppy, CD, DVD, or zip disk is advisable. But considering the size of a DVD (compressed data backup can be as large as 10 gigabyte per DVD) one might wonder if that's not a waste of a good DVD disk. Depending on what you are saving it may not be.

With DVD You Can Backup Everything

Backup of your data is always advisable. Have you considered a backup of your whole system as well? Crazy as it sounds you could lose the whole system just as easily as you could lose the data. After all they are all files, right? Unless you keep your software close at hand, your operating system, additional utilities, extras like the genealogy software and recipe software, not to mention all those extra software games, you may want to backup to DVD the operating system and all those extras for safe keeping.

DVD backup can load all of that into one recovery source (within 1o gigabyte, remember). So your total system is larger? Just backup the operating system and software on one DVD and the data to another DVD. Problem solved. The speed and durability of the process will amaze you.

Compression of your data before you attempt to backup to a DVD is advisable. Sometimes the backup process can take a while, especially with large amounts of data. By compressing before you backup you can save some time with the process.

Handling DVD Backup

Remember some of these do's and do not's when handling your DVD disks. Do handle them as carefully as you do your CD's, by the edge or the center. Do mark the disk with a non-solvent permanent felt tip marker. Do protect them from dust and dirt. Dust and dirt can scratch the surface and damage the disk and its data.

Do not leave disks out with no cover to protect them. Do not touch the surface and do not bend the disk. Keep adhesive labels or tapes away from DVD disks.