Info on Data Storage Options

Choosing Wisely

Types of Data Storage

There are three main types of data storage - magnetic (hard drives, floppies, tape), optical (CD's, DVD's), and solid state.

Computer screen

Magnetic storage literally uses magnetism to align polarity on iron oxide or similar material. Optical storage uses lasers on a thin metallic film to store the information. Solid state, like the name implies, doesn't have moving parts like a magnetic hard drive and uses microchips to keep track of data.

The hard drive in your computer is generally magnetic, although solid state drives are starting to show up more. A tower PC uses 3.5 inch drives, and a laptop uses 2.5 inch. Tape storage is still used quite a bit for low-cost backups.

Compact discs (CD's) and digital video discs (DVD's) are pretty familiar to most people. DVD's hold more information than CD's, which is why they are used for movies. Blu-Ray holds even more information than regular DVD's. Data is stored (and read) using a low power optical laser while the disc spins. There are other types, but these are the most common.

Solid state drives include 3.5 inch for PC towers and 2.5 inch for laptops but they are expensive in comparison, although prices are falling rapidly. A small capacity drive, like perhaps 128 gigabytes, is in the range of about $80.00 to $100.00 right now, compared to a 3.5 inch 500 gigabyte magnetic at about $55.00 give or take a few dollars. A one terabyte solid state drive can cost $250.00 or more, compared to about $80.00 for magnetic. Solid state is more reliable and faster in some ways than magnetic, but it still costs a more.

Flash drives are also called thumb drives (because they are about the size of a thumb), USB drives (because of the connector), and jump drives (because it was a brand name at one time, and perhaps because you can 'jump' data from one computer to another). They are solid state storage devices with a USB connector built in for direct connection to a computer. They are stable, but still must be protected from electric shock, like static electricity from when you walk across a carpet and touch a doorknob or when you get out of your car on a dry winter's day and touch the metal door.

Pros and Cons of Data Storage Types

The main thing to remember about data storage, whether it's a hard drive, flash drive, CD, DVD, or solid state, is that they ALL FAIL. We say all the time here at Tech Support that it's not IF your storage (especially your hard drive) will fail, it's WHEN. Tech Support recommends making two copies of everything on your computer that is important to you. Even CD's and DVD's can fail. The reflective aluminum layer can become oxidized. Ultra violet light can also damage the layer. Believer it or not, there are bacterial growths and fungus that can affect them. Electrical shocks (like you get after shuffling across carpet in dry weather) can zap them too. The manufacturer's cannot perfectly seal every disk against corrosion, although there have been some coatings developed that can extend the life of a disk over a hundred years. There are also sleeves, bags, and boxes that can protect against all these attacks on your precious memories.

Magnetic storage (hard drives) is more susceptible to damage from magnetic forces than perhaps solid state drives (depending on strength) but is less costly. Solid state drives (including flash drives) are more expensive and can be damaged by unplugging improperly and static shocks. Hard drives hold the most data for the lowest cost. CD's only hold about 700 megabytes, and DVD's hold about 4.7 gigabytes (more than six CD's).

Flash (thumb, jump, USB) drives, are more portable but more expensive than magnetic drives. An 8 gigabyte flash drive costs about $10.00 to $15.00 or so depending on quality, and holds about what 2 DVD's can store for maybe $0.30 each. 32 gigabyte flash drives are around $50.00. Larger solid state drives for desktops and laptops are in the hundred dollar plus range at this writing, while quality regular magnetic hard drives are in the neighborhood of half that or less.

External magnetic hard drives are good to have because you need a backup for your single desktop or laptop drive, and you can move them from computer to computer with USB connections. They are a little more expensive than an internal drive because they have an enclosure, cabling, and software. But they are probably your best option right now for a cost effective storage device. You can buy enclosures and drives separately and change out the drive later if you need a larger one.

WHATEVER TYPE YOU CHOOSE, JUST MAKE SURE TO CHOOSE SOMETHING AND BACK UP YOUR DATA.

We can't emphasize this enough. And we can't tell you how many sad stories we've heard from people who waited too long to back up data. Family pictures get lost, hundreds of hours recording and buying music go right down the toilet, or precious bookkeeping records and other business documents are just suddenly gone. If we have to, we can frequently get it back. Hopefully with software and not much money, but usually our lab has to open up the drive in a clean room, which costs a lot of money (starting at around $500.00 and going up to several thousand dollars).

So take our advice. Please. Figure out a backup method and prepare for the eventual failure of your hard drive. Or come on down and talk with us and we'll help you figure out what you need.

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Backing Up With Network Attached Storage

Network attached storage (NAS) is a good way to go for home or business centralized storage. It's like a separate computer with nothing but hard drives (usually two or four) that hold whatever you want. You can get four, 1 terabyte hard drives for somewhere around $500.00 or $600.00 at this writing (although better quality systems are higher), and that's a lot of storage. These drives are usually paired together (in what's called a RAID configuration or redundant array of independent disks). One hard drive mirrors the other in the pair, which means one drive is the back up of the other. Four drives are really just two with two backups in a RAID 1 configuration. A rule of thumb for data storage is you can never have too many backups.

Online Data Storage (The Cloud)

On line data storage is great, if you can get on line, and if hackers don't get in to steal or mess up the on line system, and if you don't mind paying every month or year forever. And yes, hacking happens way more often than you hear about. Most reputable companies have back ups and safety systems to protect your data. But anytime you introduce more people into the equation you get greater chances of error. Also, data sent through cyberspace can be collected by other people who are not supposed to get it, even if it is encrypted. They may not be able to break the encryption, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Your financial data on your personal computer isn't much of a target for the black hats (hackers). But put a few hundred client's data on a cloud server somewhere and suddenly it is a very nice target. Plus, what's to say a disgruntled employee of a cloud service doesn't decide to make a nice retirement by selling access to your data?

 So Tech Support does not recommend depending on the Internet (or the cloud) for storing all your data. However, we offer a backup service that is local and secure if you need off-site storage.

You can either bring your backup drive to us and we can transfer the data to our servers, or we can connect online and upload it. Either way, for a small fee, we can make copies of your backups and keep them safe away from your computer. In case of failure, we will have a copy for you when you need it. Call us for more details.

Data Storage by the Numbers

Byte: a computer 'word' made up of eight 1's or zeros called bits.

Kilobyte: about one thousand bytes. Most documents are measured in the kilobyte range. A 300-page book or document in Microsoft Word format containing 116,945 words is about 830 kilobytes. Converting that to an Adobe pdf file gives a file size of 1,612 kb or 1.612 megabytes. Simple letters with a couple of graphics (like letterhead) are about 25 to 50 kilobytes. Abbreviated in file sizes as kb, i.e. 50kb.

Megabyte: about one million bytes, one thousand times the size of a kilobyte. Pictures are about 2 to 6 megabytes depending on your camera's settings. Most songs are around 3 to 4 megabytes of information in an mp3 format. Abbreviated in file sizes as mb, i.e. 4mb or 4 megabytes.

Gigabyte: about one billion bytes, 1,000 times the size of a megabyte. You can fit about 250 4mb pictures in a gigabyte.

Terabyte: About a million megabytes (a trillion bytes) and again, 1,000 times the size of a gigabyte. This equals about 250,000 pictures (assuming 4 megabytes average), 128 DVD movies (assuming 8 gigabytes each) or maybe 20 Blu Ray disks.

 

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