Back-up discs?

Gillor

Magenta wrote: »

I will be going to poundland as suggested by skymist when I can, but have ordered some paper ones from A....... as suggested by Gillor for now.:A

I will be going to Poundland as well now. Thanks for the lead Skymist.

securityguy

John_Gray wrote: »

So what would you use for immediacy and portability?

A 500GB portable hard drive is fifty quid.

Nilrem

Pinkypants wrote: »

Maybe something like this....http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/data-storage/hard-drives/portable-external-hard-drives/wd-my-passport-ultra-slim-portable-hard-drive-500-gb-blue-21466047-pdt.html

Handy, but depending on backup size overkill.

Also a write only, non mechanical media will often survive rough handling, and generally unaffected by some of the nasties that can wipe or encrypt drives (the last thing you want is your backup media to be affected by the same thing that requires you to use it).

I tend to still use DVD's and external drives (flash and spinning rust), as the DVD's are cheap enough that I can do them and keep them practically forever* (I just disposed of some CD's I'd done in about 2000, and having backups going back a few years can be handy).


Re the OP.
You can get disc labeling kits (sheets of labels you run through the printer then an applicator), but I always found them fiddly.
These days I tend to use a printable media, and a printer that can do disc printing as my handwriting is poor at best (printers that can do discs start from about £60, but it may be worth checking your one as sometimes they don't make a big thing about it**).

cheapest option is as has been said some kind of permanent marker, you can get some specifically sold for CDR/DVDR for a couple of quid, then there are the printable media, label kits (not great), or lightscribe (if that is still going?) but that requires specific media and a drive that supports it.




*Or bung them in a case and seal it in a baggy (with a bit of silica gel) and store it in the garage/shed for an easy "off site" backup (if my house burns down the garage is a separate building about 20 foot away so should be safe).

**My current one didn't list disc printing on the box in anything like the prominent way it did wifi, and the ability to print from tablets without a PC.