glsmigh100,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

There are tape drives that are good for this and some are going to CD-RW and DVD-RW drives as the disks get cheaper. External hard drives are also a good way to go.

Since you put "Automatic" in the subject then an external HD is the best choice.  It's about the same cost as a DVD burner, no media to buy, and you have the option of unatttended backups.  You can still unplug the drive for off-site storage if that's required.

Dave

Re: Ext.Hd.     Would you have to partition Ext.Drive,load windows Xp, drivers, etc.?  Or

would your internal drive just be copied?

Actually, most external USB hard drives are preformatted these days, Plug it in and you're ready to go.  

jjw218,

You would have to partition the drive and format it for use as with any other drive it would not be accessable until this is done but nothing needs to be installed on it for you to copy information to it.

I don't know anything about them but I've seen "USB memory devices" advertised.  I think they are used to store music or photos in a transportable form.  Could these be used for data file backup?  What capacity do they have?

 

George

I suppose they could, but the per byte cost is high.  I believe the go up to 512MB.  Not something you'd want to use for permanent storage.

Dave

The USB memory drives you are referring to are called flash drives or keychain drives. You can get them in capacity anywhere from 16MB to 1 GB, and probably higher. A 128 MB flash drive wil cost around $40 to $50 and a 1 GB around $275 to $300. They can be used for data backup, but are better used for data transfer. However, you can find an 80 GB external USB hard drive for around $100 (counting rebates) if you shop around. Cheaper if you want less capacity. So, you certainly get more bang for your buck with an external hard drive.