One of the major revolutions in the entertainment industry in the recent
years has been the growth of CD-R and DVD-R technology. With CD and DVD burners
you can create your own CDs and DVDs to listen to, watch and enjoy.
These media can also be used for data storage. CDs can hold up to 800
megabytes of data, while a single DVD can hold a whopping 4.7 gigabytes.
Compare that to the old floppy disks and you can see somewhat why that medium
is becoming obsolete.
CDs and DVDs are fairly cheap to buy. Buying in bulk you can often purchase
them for less than a dollar a disk. If your computer doesn’t already have a CD
or DVD burner you will have to purchase one, but this is a one time cost. You
can get a CD burner for as little as $50, and a DVD burner for as little as
$50.
The biggest problem with using CDs and DVDs is their reusability. With CD-Rs
and DVD-Rs, once you have burned the disk that is it. You can’t put anything
else new on the disk, and you can’t take anything off. The disk is finalized,
and there is nothing that can be done to it.
There are CD-RWs and DVD-RWs, but even these are imperfect media. While they
can be rewritten, you can’t just add a single file or modify a single file, you
must rewrite the entire disk every time you wish to make a change. This makes
it a bit of a hassle compared to other backup media. However if you aren’t
planning to make any changes to your backups, and only wish to add to them then
CDs and DVDs can make an excellent backup solution.
Data Storage Space 800 megabytes for CDs, 4.7 gigabytes for DVDs
Ease of Use Fairly simple to burn, complicated if you want to add to
a backup disk
Physical Storage Small, require special cases to protect against
damage
Reusability CD and DVD-Rs have no reusability, CD and DVD-RWs have
limited reusability
Cost Usually a dollar or less for the disks if bought in bulk, $30 to
$200 for the burner if you have to buy a new one