| At the present time it's hard to imagine our living without personal computers. We apply them in business and for entertainment. Communication with other people, watching video films, listening to music, playing games and numerous other operations are presented by PCs. Personal computers are strongly linked to computer data. Info is usually stored on the HD of the personal computer, but it is strongly advised to have a copy of all the important data on other recording medium. This will guarantee the safety of this info in case of problems with the hard disk.
There are several types of recording media. The most popular amidst them are magnetic tapes, hard disc, digital versatile and compact discs and flash memory discs. All these information storage media have their pluses and minuses. It's up to you to decide what data storage medium to select to store your back up information.
Magnetic tape used to be the most popular medium for data storage. It represents an access medium, therefore the access time is rather slower than in case you apply HD. But at the same time continuous writing and reading are commonly considerably faster. With the development of new data storage mediums magnetic tapes are becoming obsolete, but nevertheless they are in use in special situations, since they are the most reliable data media.
Another type of information storage media is optical disk backup system, usually called CDs and DVDs. This system is efficient and easy in use. A significant advantage of optical disks is that info can be saved to and read from these discs almost on any machine with a typical CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
Flash memory disk backup system, represented by USB, SmartMedia, Memory Stick and others, represents the following step of information storage development. These gadgets are portable, easy to apply and able to save a lot of information. All the modern personal computers possess facilities to restore information from such discs. Their only minus is high price comparing to floppy and optical discs. But at the same time flash memory disc system is the most convenient and reliable information storage medium. |
