A storage device used to hold copies of data for backup and recovery. In the IT world, tape drives and tape libraries have been the traditional backup storage medium; however, magneto-optic (MO) and other optical discs as well as regular magnetic disks are also used. See LAN free backup.
Consumer Devices
In the consumer world, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW are popular backup media. External hard disks that plug into the USB port or into the network are also widely used.
In the early days of personal computers, backup was not a high priority with users. However, QIC tapes were used in the 1980s, and Zip disks were very popular in the 1990s. A variety of removable hard disks were also available. When users began burning their own CDs in the late 1990s, these media mostly gave way to the CD-R. See QIC, Zip disk, SyQuest and REV disk.
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