Summary
This article explains how to back up to Blu-ray using Backup4all and the advantages it offers.
On this page:
Benefits when using Backup4all for Blu-ray backups
How to backup to Blu-ray with Backup4all
Details
Blu-ray Disc (also known as Blu-ray or BD-R/RE) is the most advanced optical disc storage medium used today. The Blu-ray Disc has the same physical dimensions as standard DVDs and CDs, but it has considerably much more storage space, as a single layer Blu-ray Disc can store up to 25 GB of data (50 GB of data for dual layer Blu-ray Discs). Since Blu-ray burning devices and storage discs will gradually get cheaper, backing-up to Bly-ray discs will increase in popularity to the point where it will surpass other backup methods, such as online back-up, because it is a convenient method and in the same time it can offer offsite protection (after you backup to Blu-ray discs, you can store those on a remote location). A Blu-ray disc can have up to 16 layers, each of them being able to store 25 GB of data. If right now the most common Blu-ray discs only have one or two layers (meaning 25 or 50 GB), important players have announced that Blu-ray discs with capacities of 400 GB might be available to the public as soon as 2010. As capacity rises and prices will go down, the backup to Blu-ray method will become one of the most popular backup solutions.
Benefits when using Backup4all for Blu-ray backups
Backup4all can backup to Blu-ray discs because it has its own internal Blu-ray burning engine, and offers important features that bring value to the backup to Blu-ray method such as:
- Wizard-driven interface. With Backup4all you can define a backup to Blu-ray job in 2 simple main steps: select Where to backup (in this case the Blu-ray disc) and What to backup. Optionally you can change the backup type and schedule the backup to run automatically at specific time intervals.
- Blu-ray Disc spanning. If a single Blu-ray disc is not enough to fit all the source data or if you want to swap Blu-ray discs (to store different backup versions on different discs), Backup4all can split it across several Blu-ray discs. Furthermore, when doing a mirror
backup to Blu-ray and using disk spanning, you can choose not to split the files. This is a useful option because you can backup your music or movies to Blu-ray discs and not have them split up when the Blu-ray disc is full.
- Blu-ray backup automatic testing. After the backup to Blu-ray finished, Backup4all will test the backed up data to ensure that it is not corrupted.
- Blu-ray backup scheduling. Backup4all has a scheduler that allows defining a backup job to be executed automatically at a specified time. The only thing needed would be for the Blu-ray Disc to be inserted when the backup is scheduled to run.
- Data security. Backup4all offers AES encryption so if the backup is stored as an archive it can be protected with a password to prevent unauthorized access in case the Blu-ray backup disc is lost.
- Backup to Blu-ray with or without compression
. Backup4all can either compress the backed up data in a zip archive, or without compressing it at all (one-on-one copy). Mirror backup (without compression) allows this way to back up movies, music or other entertainment media to Blu-ray, while the compression types offers the extra-option to encrypt the archive.
How to back up to Blu-ray with Backup4all:
- Open Backup4all and go to File->New Backup (Ctrl+N) to create a new backup job.
- Type a name for your job and choose the Blu-ray drive as backup destination. Press Next.
- Add source files and folders you want to back up or choose a plugin
from the list. Press Next.
- Choose the backup type you want to use. Press Next.
- If you want to schedule the backup, select when do you want to backup.
- Press Save->Save and run
