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I belong to a small/ mid-size local museum. They would like to start backing up their data. I was on the fence on what to reccomend. I initially though just CDRW, but I believe that would be to limiting. The next I thought of was a external HDD. Would that be overkill? How about a Tape Drive?

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You are correct in not recommending using CD-RW disks for critical backups.
They are not as reliable as tape drives. In addition, most backup software packages do not support using a CD drive as the media.

Tape drives are still the reference standard for data backup.

External, or even hot-swap drive bays are being used more and more for backup. A hard drive can have the same capacity as several tapes.

You need to look at the size of the data set, and define a backup strategy before committing to a technology.

Will the daily backups fit on a single tape?

What about weekly and monthly full backups?

What are your archive and recovery plans?

Will you need 1 set of media, or 3?

Normally, you set up a minimum of 2 sets of backup media.
2 sets of tapes for daily backups, and 2 sets of weekly.
Ideally, a third weekly tape should be stored off-site.

You can see how the hard drive solution quickly adds a lot of cost to a back-up plan.

Chas

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I don’t recommend tape drives to back up a stand alone PC. Reliable, large capacity drives and media are too expensive.

Removable hard drives are a good option. Instead of a USB external drive, I prefer removable hard drive trays that install in a 5.25″ drive bay. You could perform full backups on one or more hard drives that can be removed and stored off site. The tray protects the drive.

Frame and removable tray runs $15 to $35 depending on construction material and vendor. Trays alone are about 1/2 to 2/3 cost ot whole assembly.

With 120 GB HDDs selling for under $90.00, this is a fairly inexpensive option.

Data can be backed up to CD-RW or DVD-RW drives using Backup My PC which is inexpensive and readily available.

Dalton

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You need to supply some more info on what you are backup up. Is it a server, a PC, some stand-alone PCs? What do you think will be the space your backup will require (in GB)? Will you be backing up a database or are is it just simple files?

After having that kind of info it should be easier to recommend something for you.

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