Reasons to Use Tape Drives for Backup and Recovery of Data by Terry Fitzroy

In a perfect world we would never have to worry about our computers failing, nor would we have to worry about natural disaster. But we don't live in a perfect world and hardware fails every single day which is just one reason to use tape drives for backup and recovery of data.

It is for certain that all computers and their components will fail at some point. The factor that is not known is when. Sooner or later every one of us will be dealing with a dead computer. The biggest threat is the loss or corruption of data which is why you need to backup regularly.

There are many reasons why your data may become lost or corrupt, and not all of them are easy to fix. When corruption or data loss happens many times there is only one option and that is to restore our data from the backup. So the best way to protect yourself is to make sure you do regular data backups to your tape drive.

If you are making regular tape backups restoring your data will go quick and you will have minimal data loss. There are many different tape drives on the market and most have their own software to help you streamline your backups by scheduling and making sure the process of restoring your data is very simple.

Today, there are many options available for storing and backing up your data. Tape drives, tape libraries, CD-R's, CD-RW's, and DVDs. Recently storage has gone mini with backup devices being as small as a USB 2 GB drive that's no bigger than a piece of gum. To date this is by far the most convenient form of data backup however for businesses tape backups still remain a top choice.

Tape backups are convenient. One advantage to this form of backup is the ability to create an ongoing backup library. This allows you to jump back to several different points creating a snapshot of all your work. This is especially useful for writers, artists, or photographers, business in general and those that do project management.

Even Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 recommend you not only backup daily but you set restore points daily. Backup tools by themselves are not enough. You need to be used properly and on a regular basis which is why you should use a good backup piece of software to control your backup sequencing and frequency. It is like having the smartest and most organized personal assistant on the planet. No more trying to remember when you last backed up, when your next backup is due.

How often you backup, depends on the type of work you are doing, and how quickly your files become outdated. A business that depends on the data on the computer might backup every hour but if you are a home user you might need to backup only once a week. You should review your backup schedule twice a year to make sure it is still meeting your need.

There are many reasons to use tape drives for backup and recovery of your data but peace of mind is the best one.

Author Resource: Terry Fitzroy is a professional writer and reviewer for data storage for companies. For more information on data storage and recovery go to http://www.exabyte.com/

MOST READ ARTICLES