John asks, " I've got a lot of stuff stored on my gaming computer - enough that I'd had to buy a second terabyte hard drive in order to store more stuff. My question is pretty simple: how do I back all of this data up?"

When it comes to backing up data, you have a few options, and no solution will be the perfect fit for everyone:

CD/DVD/BD-based storage is good for short-term low capacity backups. Most burnable media won't very long (the cheaper media has been known to hold data for no more than 6 months before bit-rot takes effect), and it won't hold much data, but if you just need a way to temporarily store some files, or transport them cheaply and easily, burnable media is right for you.

Flash drives are an alternative to burnable media. While they don't suffer from bit-rot, they're generally very low capacity, unless you spend a lot of money.

If you need longer term storage, tape drives might be something to consider. While they don't offer the hundreds of gigabytes that you might need, the DAT-72 format offers 72 gigabytes of storage per cartridge. Because of its higher capacity, it becomes a much more manageable solution than backing up to DVD or Blu-Ray, and lasts far longer when stored properly; however, it's much more expensive. If you must have long term storage, a data cartridge might be the best solution for you.

Of course, sometimes you just need a large amount of space because you've got a large amount of data, and your budget doesn't allow for buying hundreds of DAT cartridges every week. In this case, you might want to consider backing up to a hard drive. Consider this: hard drives offer the most space at the lowest cost per gigabyte, and they can often last years while in service. Your best bet, for a multi-terabyte system, may simply be to buy some additional hard drives and use them exclusively for backing up your data. It's not as cheap as burning some stuff to Blu-ray, but it's a lot less expensive than buying a new data tape every week.

If you're just a regular consumer that wants to back up your data in case something ever happens, then using a hard drive might be the best option. If you're looking for long term, off-site storage, then a tape drive is your best bet. If you're looking to just backup some games, movies, and music, a DVD or Blu-Ray disk will be the best option (just don't expect them to last long).

If you have a question, shoot me an e-mail: lordkat@gmail.com

Be safe,
Jason