Getting the Most Out of Your Media: Care & Handling Tips

Take care of backup tapes & discs with this simple plan
Combining a backup and restore plan with the tips below can help ensure that your vital information will be around tomorrow — and the foreseeable future — even if disaster should strike.

The backup and restore plan your company uses will depend on a few factors:

1. How often does your company need to refer to its data? If you need to refer to yesterday’s data, a daily tape rotation would work best.
2. How valuable is your data? The more valuable your data is, the more often you should backup and move your backup media offsite.

If you use data tape cartridges to backup your files, Imation recommends that you follow a monthly 10 tape backup rotation; however more or fewer can be appropriate.

1. Label your tapes one through 10.
2. Use tapes one through four on each Monday through Thursday of the month for incremental backups, to capture those daily changes in databases, documents and other important files.
3. Use a new tape (tapes five through seven) for each of the first three Fridays of the month for weekly backups.
4. Use tapes eight through 10 on the last Friday for a monthly backup, rotating these each month.

Then store the weekly and monthly tapes at a secure offsite location as insurance against physical threats to your place of business.

You can follow similar plans with CDs or DVDs. You’ll want to use rewritable media such as CD-RW, DVD+/-RW, and DVD-RAM discs for daily incremental or differential backups. Then use permanent discs, such as CD-Rs, DVD+/-Rs for archiving weekly and monthly backups. Regardless of what plan you follow, following a plan is the first step – regular evaluation and testing of your ability to restore will make your data more secure.

Handle With Care
To keep your files safe so that you can get them when you need them, handle data cartridges and optical discs with proper care using the tips below.

Data cartridge care:

1. Acclimating. Allow the tape to acclimate to the operating environment; one hour for each hour spent offsite, for a maximum of eight hours.
2. Carrying. Do not drop data cartridges. Carry or stack no more than six cartridges at a time.
3. Cleaning. Regular cleaning removes debris from drive heads. Imation offers dry cleaning cartridges for most tape formats that do not need any chemicals or solvents. Note: AIT drives do not require cleaning.
4. Storing. Store tapes in a dark, cool, dry place, away from equipment. New tapes can be stored in their transport packages until they are used. Do not leave used cartridges in the drive; place them in their final storage box so the reel axes are horizontal.

CD & DVD media care:

1. Handling. Handle a CD or DVD disc by the outer edge only. Never touch the unlabeled side of the disc and do not set it down on hard surfaces.
2. Labeling. Write on the labeled side of discs using soft-tipped, permanent ink pens on the inner circle of the disc only. If using a label, be sure that it has high-quality adhesive that won’t corrode the disc. Be sure to apply the label properly, as an off-center, or bumpy label could harm your CD or DVD burner.
3. Cleaning. Use a soft, lint-free cloth to remove debris from discs and always wipe from the center out. Do not use abrasive or solvent cleaners.
4. Storing. Store CDs and DVDs in a dark, cool, dry place in protective storage cases.