Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
while on the road, and as prices drop and capacities increase,
I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually become an even more
economical choice than hard drives.
•
SD cards:
Several Mac models include built-in SD card slots,
which are primarily designed to let you easily transfer data from
your digital camera or camcorder. But since the SD card mounts
as a regular Finder-accessible volume, you can easily use it to store
backups, too. What I said just previously about USB flash drives
applies here too—there's nothing wrong with them in principle,
it's just that the cards are currently too limited in capacity, and
too expensive per gigabyte, to use as one's main backup medium.
However, where a flash drive would work for a quick backup on the
go, an SD card should work equally well.
•
Tape drives:
Drives that store your data on digital tape cartridges
of one kind or another are common in big businesses, but they're
more cumbersome than hard drives, require a lot of media
swapping (or a robot to do it for you), and are relatively expensive
(that is, the
drives
are expensive; the media itself isn't). For home
or small-office users, they're a poor choice.
