Optical Discs Versus Portable Hard Drives

Backing up your data is vital especially if you have very important files or documents saved on your PC. It is also important to consider what type of media you will use for backing up your data. Among the most common backup media are the optical discs (CD-R/RW or DVD-R/RW) and portable hard drives. Between the two, which do you think would be more efficient for you?

A major consideration in backing up your files is the size of the media that you will need. Optical discs have very limited space. Writable DVDs have around 4.3 Gigabytes of storage. CDs, on the other hand, only have 700MB. Portable hard drives have a much larger capacity. It can go as high as 500 Gigabytes which is roughly 116 DVDs. If you have lots of files, it sounds more economical to store it in a large portable hard drive rather than lots of optical discs.

When it comes to price, a 500 GB portable hard drive costs around $90 or so. A single DVD-R disc is about 20 cents. The price reflects current prices here in the Philippines and may differ in your area. Now, if you buy 500 GB worth of DVDs, you'll spend around $23 or so. Plus, you'll probably get a discount when you buy a pack of 10s or 20s, or more, DVD-Rs.

One of the main problems with using DVD-Rs is the physical space. You need to store or compile them in a large booklet or jacket. Plus, they get scratched easily therefore compromising the integrity of the data. However, if a portable hard drive fails, everything that is stored in it will most likely be gone forever (unless you have a backup of your backup). If a DVD gets damaged, at least you'll only lose a small portion of your total backup and even if it has heavy scratches, there's a chance that your optical drive can read it.

When it comes to file organization, the portable hard drive wins hands down. DVD-Rs can only be written once. You can't modify or delete your files. On a portable hard drive, since it works like a regular hard drive, you can rearrange your files if you need to. If you want to, you can add folders to organize your files more efficiently.

It's much easier to look for a file in a hard drive than to browse through a pile of DVDs and checking them one by one. When it comes to reading and writing of data, the portable hard drive has the advantage. They are usually faster than the time it takes to burn files onto a DVD disc.

But which should you choose? It really depends on the size of your backup, what types of files you have and how you would want your files arranged. If you want a permanent backup for small files, optical discs are more than enough. You can just refer to it if your main drive fails. But if you want to have a backup that you can access and modify at any time, and if you need a considerably large amount of space, the portable hard drive could be just right for you. I recommend the portable drive if you have large multimedia files such as high definition videos.

Source:
Optical Disc - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_disc