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What is Data Backup?

Data backup involves the storing of files from your computer in another location. In this way, if there is ever any loss of data on your primary machine, you still have your data in backup in order to restore those files. In the world of computers loss of data can be devastating, and while there are possibilities for recovery of data after a disaster it is far easier to restore your files from backup than to attempt to find your data on a crashed hard drive.

Why do I Want to Backup My Data?

Data backup is easy to do and can save you great amounts of time as well as ensure that your data is secure in the case of disaster. Data recovery is a very difficult, time consuming and expensive process, and it is not even assured that you will be able to recover your data from a system crash.

Backup does not take much time, as it is easy to put your files onto another medium, and is not too expensive, depending upon what mediums you use to backup your data. There are many different options for data backup, and you will have to choose the one that is best for you.

What is the Best Data Backup Option for Me?

The traditional floppy disks of a few years ago have become essentially obsolete, and it is not surprising considering the limitations of that medium, and the new technologies that have become available in the meantime, such as CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, online backup and key drives. These are all very powerful tools which can hold far more data than a 3.5 inch floppy could ever dream of holding.

One of the most powerful new data backup utilities is the key drive. These key-chain sized drives can hold up to a gigabyte more of data, depending upon the size purchased, and will not scratch or damage as easily as a floppy disk or even a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. You can purchase a key drive for as little as $20, and it will plug directly into you computer and be able to be immediately be used.

CD-R, DVD-R versus CD-RW, DVD-RW

CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVD-Rs and DVD-RWs are also very powerful tools for data backup. CD-Rs and DVD-Rs are very inexpensive, costing less than a dollar a disk oftentimes. However, these devices do have the limitation of only being usable once. Once your CD-R or DVD-R is finalized, it is finished. You can access data from the disk, but you cannot write any more data onto the disk.

This is not the case with CD-RW and DVD-RW. CD-RW stands for CompactDisk-ReWritable, and unlike a normal CD-R they can be rewritten any number of times. However it should be pointed out that they are not as manipulable as a traditional floppy disk, where you can save and take off files very easily. Each time you want to rewrite your disk, you must rewrite the entire disk and go through the entire burning process.

However, this is still an excellent way to backup your data as a CD-RW or DVD-RW can hold hundreds of thousands of megabytes, respectively. You need to backup your data, and there are many ways that you can do so.

Walter Stevens is a contributor at Free-backup.info -- the home of the popular tool for online backup and recovery -- Back2zip. This article can be found at http://free-backup.info/why-do-i-need-to-backup-my-data.html