Backup

No, Microsoft did not consider CD disks to be a reliable backup media and did not include the CD as a destination in the backup application.

Look at it this way, an 80GB hard drive would require up to 100 CDs to back it up if the drive was full. Whereas a tape drive can use 1 or 2 tapes.

Also, from an archival perspective, CDs are not as reliable as tape. CD-RW disks can be less reliable than floppy disks.

That said, I use CDs for backup on my home system.
When I backup critical data to CD, I make a minimum of 3 copies.

Chas

One way of using MS Backup to CD is to backup to the hard drive and then copy the backup to cd throught XP cd writing software or any other cd writing software. The backup on cd is able to be restored from the cd by MS backup. A bit of an anomoly really.