Posts Tagged ‘Scratches’

Commercial Software That Allows You to Easily Backup Your Dvds

Friday, June 12th, 2009

James Fohl is a contributor at Free-backup.info — the home of the popular Amazon S3 based online backup service — Back2zip. This article available at http://free-backup.info/commercial-software-allows-easily-backup-dvds.html

Commercial Software That Allows You to Easily Backup Your Dvds

Have you ever thought about your DVDs, and wished there was a simple way to make backup copies of them? Let’s face it, DVDs aren’t cheap. Another piece of common knowledge that you can throw in to that mix is that DVDs aren’t durable. You may have just spent a hundred dollars on the complete first season of your favorite TV show only to find the discs unreadable because your kids gained control of the discs.

If you have young children in your household, you really have to start considering what options exist in allowing you to make backups of your DVDs.

A DVD’s worst nightmare is the dirty hands of a seven year old child. The child will get dirt all over the disc, scratches on the disc from rough handling, and if the disc is still readable after that, then you’ll probably soon see the DVD flying through the air as if it was a Frisbee.

Because of this great limitation to the wonderful DVD format, it makes perfect sense for any family with small children to consider making backup copies of your purchased DVDs.

Thankfully several software companies have seen the need for software that allows users to easily make backup copies of their DVDs, and now such software is readily available both on the internet and at your local software store.

1CLICK DVD Copy is one of the greatest pieces of DVD backup software there is available. With one click, the software will quickly make a backup copy of any DVD movie. The publisher of this software states that you can easily have a backup copy burned within fifteen minutes!

DVD Wizard Pro is another excellent piece of DVD backup software. While it does not offer all of the advanced capabilities of 1CLICK DVD, it is cheaper and offers other abilities to the user such as the ability to easily create backup copies of your Playstation 2 and XBOX video games.

Cosmi DVD Ripper is a value priced piece of computer software that allows users to easily create backup copies of their DVDs. Priced at under ten dollars, Cosmi is not without its own set of problems. If your DVD movie is longer than a hundred minutes, then you’ll have to find another piece of software; Cosmi for some reason is only capable of copying the first hundred minutes.

After recommending a couple software titles, this list would not be complete if it did not list any worthless pieces of DVD backup software.

Roxio Easy DVD Copy is one product that’s hard to recommend. While the product’s box promptly displays ‘Copy Hollywood DVDS’ this is simply not the case. Roxio Easy DVD Copy will only copy unprotected media, which is very unfortunate considering the fact that ninety nine percent of commercial DVDs are encoded with copy protection. Roxio believes that after creating trust with millions of computer users, they can pull a fast one. Roxio Easy DVD Copy is simply a horrible product, and especially with its retail price of fifty dollars.

Commercial software is not your only option for making backup copies of your DVDs; several free pieces of software are out there waiting to be utilized.

Besides commercial software, a lot of free applications exist on the internet that allow you to backup your DVDs. Unfortunately, these pieces of software are not exactly the easiest things to use, but if you wish to save some money and just spend your time learning how to use the free software, in the end it’s your best choice.

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Key Drives and Data Backup

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Walter Stevens is a contributor at Free-backup.info — the home of the best online backup software — Back2zip. This article can be found at http://free-backup.info/key-drives-and-data-backup.html

Data Backup Key Drives

Key drives are one of the most exciting new inventions in the world of data backup. Floppy disks have essentially become obsolete, replaced by CD-Rs and DVD-Rs, but now a new force has come on to the data backup market. Key drives are tiny external drives which are only the size of a key-chain. Many in fact actually are key chains, and you can carry them in your pocket wherever you go.

The smallest holds several times more than a traditional 3 and half inch floppy disk, and larger ones can hold as much data as a CD-ROM or even more. Considering the size and power of these drives, it is no wonder that they are becoming a powerful force in the data backup market.

How Exactly Does a Key Drive Work for my Data Backup?

A key drive is a tiny drive which connects to your computer via a USB connection. On most newer operating systems, USB will be automatically recognized by your computer and you will not even have to install any device drivers for instant plug and play capability. This is very powerful and far easier to operating than having to go through the business of installing a new drive in order to burn CD-Rs or DVD-Rs for your data backup.

The key drive requires no external power source, and is only on when it is actually plugged into your machine. It is very versatile, and will not experience the problems with scratches or warping that is common with CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMS and floppy disks. This means that not only is your data safe from harm done to your computer, but having a backup key drive will have far less chance of failing on you than the old CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs and floppy disks. This is how you can carry them around on your key-chain or in your pocket and there will still be no damage to them.

How do I Get a Key Drive for my Data Backup?

There are many companies offering data backup key drives. The best way to find out more about particular key drives is to go to your local computer store and ask them what key drives they have available. All key drives will be similar in size and quality, and it will be up to you to decide which you think is best. Smaller key drives generally hold about 16 megabytes of storage, but there are key drives that can hold far more data, meaning that you have all the more data backup on a single device.

Prices are generally between $20 and $30 for smaller drives, and can cost up to hundreds of dollars for larger ones which contain a gigabyte or more of data storage space. However, as is always the case with new technology these prices will continue to drop as they become more and more common. However, they are very useful and there is no reason not to start using a key drive now for your data backup.

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