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What do you use for long term data storage? Most home users don't consider this question. Many people don't use any backups at all. These days, one can find large (500GB) hard drives at a good price, and it's easy enough to install one in an external drive enclosure to create a giant USB attachment. This is great for regular backups, but not necessarily for long-term storage. Another option is to buy a tape drive and tape media. This is a standard among small businesses, but for the average home user, it's an expensive solution. Other solutions exist, but the most practical by far is the use of optical media. Still, this raises the question of which format to use: CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, etc.



This recent Slashdot article (which is actually mostly a dupe of an older article - standard fare for the /. audience) links to the Ad Terras Per Aspera article, "How to Choose CD/DVD Archival Media."



The whole thing is worth a read, but the short answer is this: Get yourself a good DVD burner and some high quality DVD+R media. The author is partial to Taiyo Yuden media, but you will also get good reliability from Verbatim discs.



Verbatim media is easier to find in the average store, but if you want the other, it can be had in the US from the Super Media Store web site.