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Alternatives to Tape Backup Drives

If you are a home computer user that is planning on purchasing a tape backup drive then perhaps you should consider changing your mind.

Tape backup drives are not really made for today's modern computer users when DVD writers are available at prices far lower than tape drives.

Tape backup drives were really great options for hardcore computer users back in the early 90's. The ability to store several gigabytes of data on a tape cartridge was something envied by every computer geek alive. Fortunately, 1992 has passed and it is now 2005, and in this current year computer users have several other options to consider besides old tape backup drives.

Tape backup drives are not only expensive, but incredibly slow. The tapes for the drives are also hard to locate and very expensive when compared to other media.

Tape backup drives may be able to store several gigabytes of data, but remember that because they are tape based, it takes a very long time to record the information to the tape cartridge. Not only does it take a long time to write / read data, but tape cartridges cost a lot of money, and are becoming incredibly hard to find. Think about it, when was the last time you were at your local Wal-Mart and noticed tape cartridges next the computer accessories. You would figure that something as slow as tape backup drives would be dirt cheap, but instead the cartridges start at $20.

Enter the wonderful world of DVD recorders. While they too originally were priced at insane amounts of cash, today a computer user browsing a computer store can easily locate a fast DVD burner for less than $100.

DVD burners / recorders are awesome for home computer users, not only because the discs are capable of storing 4.7 gigabytes, but also because both the hardware and disc media are incredibly cheap when compared to tape backup drives.

Considering DVD-R discs store a massive 4.7 gigabytes of data, there is not really much sense in purchasing a tape backup drive, unless you need more than 4.7 gigabytes of space. If this is the case, you can stick with a DVD recorder since new technologies such as dual layer discs have been released that allow DVD media to store much more data on them.

Even if you need fifty gigabytes of storage space, the price of DVD-R media totally crushes the price of media for tape backup drives. You figure that you can buy one tape for your tape drive for $30 and store 50 gigabytes of data on that tape. Well, you could purchase a spindle of 100 DVD-Rs for $30 and be able to store 470 gigabytes of data.

As mentioned before, even though tape backup drives store an enormous amount of data, the speed of the data is incredibly slow. DVD burners may be relatively new to the market when compared with the tape drives, but they are incredibly faster.

When it comes to the bottom line, the advantages of DVD writers make many computer users wonder why tape backup drives still exist.

James Fohl is a contributor at Free-backup.info -- the home of the best online backup tool -- Back2zip. This article can be found at http://free-backup.info/alternatives-to-tape-backup-drives.html