Q.     I don't have a floppy disk drive on my computer. How do I make backups?

The problem with making backups on CD and DVD burners is that they don't behave like regular drives, since they have to compile their files and burn not only the file but a directory. Therefore, usually all the files that are to be burned must be assembled before creating the backup. My advice to you is to adopt one of the following procedures. This list is in descending order of preference...

A.   Purchase and use a USB connectable floppy disk drive. This is a small external drive that simply plugs in to the USB port of your computer. It is designed to give your computer a (floppy) "A:" drive and let you read and write to standard floppy discs. There is also a version which is known as a "super-drive" which allows you to write to ZIP disks and several other formats of drives that add capacity, as well as flexibility. The reason that this is the most preferable suggestion is that it requires the least change to your routine. It is quick, and therefore more like to be used, and offers the safety of multiple copies of your backups on different inexpensive disks, giving you that much more safety. A USB floppy drive can easily be purchased for under $100 and of course the disks are very inexpensive. As well, you can use this drive on every computer you buy from here on. The main advantage is that because the floppy disks are so cheap there is no disincentive to keep you from having seven or more copies of your backup spanning several days or weeks, so that a failure of a backup doesn't cause you to have to start from scratch.

B.  Purchase and use a USB "thumb" drive, or "Jump" drive. These disc drives look like key fobs and plug in to your computer's USB port. They hold varying amounts of data, from 126 mb to 1 gb and beyond. They are quick and can be written and read just like a normal hard drive. They can be bought for as little as $39 and even the smallest capacity thumb drive is more than needed to store all of your DCMS data backup. Normally, you would think that this would argue as being more preferable to the USB floppy drive because it costs less and holds more, but the disadvantage of the thumb drive is that it currently only holds one copy of the backup and to get multiple copies of your backups requires multiple thumb drives. The extra cost would dissuade users from making multiple copies of backups and leave you at risk of losing data should something be wrong with your latest backup.

C.  If you have a digital camera and already have a digital card reader, you can use one of the many formats of digital cards/chips to make backups to, using your card reader to read and write the backups. Like the thumb drive, these cards hold from 32 mb to 1 gb of data, and can be overkill when applied to the task of storing your DCMS data, which would fit on a 1.4 mb floppy disk. The cost of the cards is similar to thumb drives and therefore provides a disincentive to making multiple copies, which in turn makes you less secure in your backups.

D.  The final option involves no investment and entails you making backups to your CD or DVD burner at regular intervals. This requires that you make a copy of the "Backup" folder of your "DCMSWIN" folder periodically and then burn the copies onto a CD or DVD. One of disadvantages of this scheme is that the CD (and especially the DVD) can hold so much more data, that to use one to hold just your DCMS backup is like using a boxcar to transport a briefcase. This can be mitigated by including other data like word processing documents and camera photos with your regular backups. However, this process is not as easy as any of the above, since it requires you to learn how to organize and burn a data backup. As a result, you are less likely to do this often. That would mean that your backups might be made monthly if you are conscientious. More likely, they would be made once a quarter, where if you opted for the first suggestions, (a USB floppy drive) you could easily make daily, rotating backups to multiple discs.

The foregoing is meant as suggestions. I realize that the floppy disk drive is going the way of the dinosaur and I am changing the DCMS so that multiple copies of data backups can be made to thumb drives or memory chips. I think that is short-sighted because I still believe that for the foreseeable future, the floppy drive is ideal for making DCMS backups, since they allow for a cheap way of having multiple copies of your data. In the 20 or so years that I have been helping people with the DCMS, I have never had one person come to grief because she had too many backups. Quite the opposite. Having all your eggs in one basket is never wise and floppies help you avoid the problem. 

I hope that helps.

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