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“I went for a year in my new Mr. Handyman business
trying to remember to back up our critical database onto ZIP disks. As we got
busy, I assigned the task to someone else but found that we sometimes went days
or even weeks between backups. Or worse, we found that sometimes backups were
accidentally made to the hard disk and not the ZIP drive.”
— Stefan Silverman
Mr. Handyman
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Disadvantages of
Zip Drive Backup
Just the cost of a Zip drive alone is more than a year of our 100
MB Essentials Only automated offsite data backup service. Not to mention that
each Zip disk costs you $5 to $10.
Zip drives are just glorified magnetic 3.5" floppy disks, but
with a lot more storage capacity to fit into the same space. They have
never been well known for dependability, ask any experienced IT person.
You might be able to backup your information to a Zip disk, but that does
not mean you will actually be able to retrieve it when you need it most. If one
speck of dust or a grain of sand gets inside, if the disk is exposed to heat or
water, or if it gets destroyed along with your computer in the event of a
fire, flood, theft or sabotage situation, then you will have
wasted every dollar and every minute you ever invested in it.
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*$10 more for monthly billing.
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Disadvantages of Zip drives
- Very limited storage capacity (100 to 250 MB).
- Zip disks are notoriously unreliable.
- Zip drives are expensive to buy and intall ($100 to $150 to buy and $30
to $150 to install).
- Zip disks are expensive ($5 to $10 each).
- You need a minimum of 5 disks, preferably 9.
- You need multiple disks per day for backing up large amounts of data such
as your entire system.
- You have to actually spend the time to backup (and it does take time
every day).
- You have to physically take them offsite.
- Anyone can back up your data to their own Zip disk without your knowledge.
Zip Drive Backup Overview
Drive costs $100 to $150, Zip disks cost $5 to $10 each
- How often do you actually use it?
- How many disks do you use?
- Do you rotate them and take them offsite regularly?
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