When people and companies started losing millions because of data loss incidents, the significance of creating data backups was highlighted. Most people consider creating data backups a waste of time and money and, therefore, prefer data storage devices that are cheap yet effective. A DVD is a perfect example of such a type of data storage device. DVDs are equally popular amongst home and home office users as well small and medium corporations. Some of the larger companies use DVDs to archive data.

What are DVDs?

DVDs are optical data storage media. DVDs are considered to be one of the most effective media to back up data because they are ideal to create multiple backup copies. The user does not have to worry about the cost while creating multiple copies because DVDs are one of the cheapest data backup media.

There are five formats available in DVDs. The user can choose any of the five formats depending on the data storage needs. These five formats are DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM. Whereas DVD-R and DVD+R formats do not allow the users to rewrite the data, the DVD+RW and DVD-RW can meet this need. Therefore, if you are one of those users who constantly need to delete data and store new data, DVD+RW and DVD-RW formats will be the appropriate choice for you. Similarly, if you are one of the users who needs to back up huge amount of data, DVD-RAM format will be ideal for you.

Pros and Cons of DVDs

DVDs are extremely cheap. Therefore, the user’s average cost of creating each backup is never more than just a few cents. In addition, since more and more laptops and computers are coming with a built-in DVD writer, the users do not have to spend anything extra on additional equipment. This makes DVDs extremely affordable data backup media.

However, that is not the only reason for the popularity of the DVDs. All the laptops and desktops have DVD drives. Therefore, there are no incompatibility issues as is the case with some of the data backup devices such as floppy disks. The data storage capacity of the DVDs is also very good. A DVD-RAM can store up to 9 GB of data. Therefore, the cost per MB of data is significantly reduced.

For people worried about protecting their data and weighing off-site data storage options, DVDs make an excellent data backup medium for this purpose. It is very easy to store DVDs and they do not require much physical space either. Therefore, once you have created a backup of your data, you can safely put them in a box and store it at the off-site location. This way you can assure that your data is protected even if some data disaster strikes your primary office site.

DVDs are a great option if you want to store music files or videos. The lightweight and compact nature of the DVDs make them an ideal portable data storage device. In fact, many companies use DVDs to distribute important marketing information after making product or service presentations. Since they are cheap, it does not matter even if you distribute several DVDs in a meeting.

If you are one of those users who is not very comfortable with computer technology, DVDs can be your ideal data backup media choice. Backing up data on DVDs is very easy and not very time-consuming either. Inasmuch as we would like to think DVDs as the ideal data storage devices, DVDs do have their own set of limitations and drawbacks.

The most common problem with DVDs is that they are very prone to scratches. DVDs are extremely fragile and any mishandling can cause scratches on the DVD. These scratches can spell disaster for the data stored on the DVDs.

Data can be lost very easily due to such scratches and only professional data recovery service can be of help. Therefore, data recovery from physically damaged DVDs can be very expensive. If the users do not have in-built DVD writers on their computers, buying an additional DVD writer can be an added cost.

Even though DVDs offer good storage space, they might not be an ideal option for users wanting to back up very large amounts of data. In addition, users who back up their data using DVDs would have to create multiple copies of their data because DVDs are very prone to getting damaged easily. This can make the data backup process very time-consuming.

Future of DVDs

Users will continue to use DVDs to store their data for a long time to come because of the cost advantage that DVDs offer. At present, there are no other backup media besides DVDs that can store data so efficiently and cheaply. Most users do not prefer tapes even though they are a cheap data backup option because users would need to buy tape systems and cartridges, which can be expensive.

DVDs will continue to be a favourite option for music and video files even though some users will switch to digital music players for storing their music files. If the data to be stored is not very large, users will definitely prefer USB flash drives for backing up their data because they are more durable, convenient to use, compact, and easy to carry around.

If the user is not cost-sensitive and has large data backup needs, he or she is bound to prefer portable hard drives because they are capable of storing more data and are more durable than DVDs.

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James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you are concerned about data loss and would like more information on Data Recovery see http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk