It used to be that you would backup everything on your computer with floppy disks.Today, when one sound or graphics file can easily be larger than the capacity of a disk, it would be impractical to back up even you documents by using floppies, let alone your applications.  Luckily there are better options including Zip disks, CD writers, tape drives, external hard drives and even online backup services.  You can also compress your backed up files so they take up less space.Read the following tips and you will be able to find the media that is best suited to your needs.

1) Next, determine the approximate quantity and file sizes you will be backing up.

2) Figure out the quantity and file sizes of any documents or other applications you want to archive permanantly to a backup device or removable media.

3) Plan for that amount of data to grow in the future.

4) Work out your budget for a backup storage device and removable media to use with it.

5) Consider if you plan to archive photographs or scanned files, need portability of the media or the drive itself, wish to record music for playback on other equipment, or require ease of use.Weigh each of these these factors along with your need to back up your files.

6) Calculate the cost per MB of media for each drive you are considering.zip drives themselves are relatively cheap but the disks aren't.

7) Consider buying a 100MB zip drive if you need limited storage capability (less than 1GB).An external parallel port or USB Zip drive will provide the most versatility as well as offering portability.  Buy a 250MB Zip drive if your storage needs are moderate (a few GB). 

8) Buy an internal zip drive if you will only use the drive for backup and you can install it yourself (installation fees add up).

9) Buy a CD-RW drive if you find that your storage needs are more moderate and you will regularly back up more than 500MB of data.

10) Buy a Jaz drive or even a tape backup drive if you will be backing up large amounts of data on a regular basis.

11) Buy an external hard disk if you need a lot of space, wont be keeping your old backups and dont need portability.

12)  If you require additional security, data protection and the ability to recover your data quickly then online data backup should be a serious consideration.