External Tape Drives

Backing up valuable information is a very important part of running a business or a group successfully. Depending on the type of business being run, it may even be a requirement by law... hence the external tape drive.

As more time passes, it is becoming smarter to save records of all the transactions and paperwork which go through the system in order to have protection against any discrepancies which may arise in the future. The question remains, which is the best way to save these records.

There are two main schools of thought when it comes to the best preservation methods. Most people are more familiar with the use of disc space to record and store all of their records. What many people don't realize, however, is that the use of magnetic tape outweighs disc space by far.

Magnetic tape costs nearly 25 times less to record the same amount of information as it would cost on hard disc space. It also has the ability to last for over 30 years, making its shelf life incredibly valuable. The only issue comes in the form of the fact that most computer systems normally do not come with magnetic tape decks.

This means that if someone wanted to use magnetic tape to backup all of their documents, they would need to install a tape drive into their system. Thankfully, an external tape drive is available, making the use of one of these systems incredibly easy for any user.

By installing an external tape drive, one simply needs to hook the unit up to the computer and run some software to make the unit compatible.

Sticking a blank magnetic tape into the external tape drive makes it then available for the unit to record and store the data necessary, with only a minimal amount of work on the part of the computer user. These external tape drives can be a lifesaver when it comes to the storage of all of the important data.

External tape drives will often end up saving the company a great deal of money as well, when compared to saving the equivalent amount of data on discs. The cheapest of these drives can be found for a little over $100, while some of the more quality, top-end brands can go all the way up to $900.

Whichever external tape drive is purchased, however, the company will quickly begin to save money. The tapes which are required to store the information are much cheaper and will hold much more than the disc space that could be required. In this manner, it will not take long for the company to make up the difference they would have been spending on all of the disc space and begin to save money, therefore killing two birds with one stone, with the external tape drives!