Copying to disks

Disks such as CD, DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray, flash drives, and external hard drives are convenient means of data storage. They are characterized by small size and light weight, which allows them to be easily carried and transported.

There can be different situation in which you may need to copy your information to a disk. To start with, you may want to distribute a piece of information among many people similar to the way they do it in a music industry when millions of copies of a single CD are made and sold.

You may also want create a reserve copy of some critical data, or simply record some files on a disk in order to open them on another computer. Disks present a perfect solution for any of the above mentioned situations.

There are different ways in which you can record your information to a disk depending on the type of disk, its storage capacity, and the type of connectivity with the PC. Here we will consider the advantages and disadvantages of the most common types of disks and how they are presented in Handy Backup.

CD
CD is probably the most wide-spread type of digital data storage. The capacity of a single CD is about 700 MB and allows recording any types of digital data including music, video, images, and applications. To read and record a CD on a personal computer, a CD-ROM drive is required. The type of the CD-ROM drive defines the speed of reading and recording CDs. The CD may be recorded with the help of special recording software or using Windows recording tools. Handy Backup allows recording data to CDs automatically on a flexible schedule with the option of spanning.

DVD
DVD is a data storage format that allows recording up to 9 GB (double layer DVD) on a single disk. To read and record DVDs, a DVD-ROM is required. Handy Backup allows copying data to DVD automatically without user participation with the option of spanning.

HD DVD
HD DVD is a high density optical disk that expands the storage of a single disk up to 60 GB. To read and record HD DVD, a HD DVD-ROM is required. Handy Backup allows recording large amounts of data to HD DVD with the option of spanning automatically on a schedule without user supervision.

Blu-ray
Blu-ray is a high density optical disk that allows storing up to 80 GB of digital data including high definition video. To be able to read and write Blu-ray disks, a BD-ROM must be available on a PC. Handy Backup has full support of Blu-ray disks allowing to record digital data to Blu-ray with the option of spanning on a specified time without user supervision.

Flash drives
Flash drives are not disks in a proper sense of the word, but they do perform the same function as traditional disks such as data transfer and storage. Flash drives do not use spinning platters like standard hard drives, but they are not optical disks either, instead they use flash memory to record and store information.

A distinction must be drawn between a flash drive and a USB flash drive. A flash drive imitates conventional hard drive is size, shape and interface so it can serve as a replacement for conventional hard drive in extreme conditions as it has a lower sensitivity towards mechanical damage.

A USB flash drive is a small lightweight hand-held device with a USB connector. Handy Backup allows recording data to flash drives and USB flash drives easily on a specified schedule without user participation.

External hard drives
External hard drives are storage devises based on the hard drive technology which are not a part of the computer hardware, but can be connected to a PC via any of the available interfaces such as USB, SATA, FireWire or SCSI. Handy Backup allows recording data to external hard drives with a number of very useful options such as file filters, data compression tools, automatic task execution and more.