Whether you're an IT professional, enterprise manager, small business owner, or home PC user, you've got more data than ever-and choosing reliable, cost-effective storage has never been more important. Now, a leading data storage expert explains all your options and shows you exactly how to make the most of them. Dr. Andrei Khurshudov reviews the capabilities, advantages, and underlying technologies associated with every current storage alternative, offering expert tips for buying, interfacing, scalability, recovery, and much more. Data storage interfaces: UDMA, USB, IEEE 1394 "FireWire," SCSI, FC-AL, and Serial Storage Architecture. In-depth coverage of magnetic media: hard disks, tapes, and removables. Up-to-date comparisons of removable storage: Superdisk, HiFD, Zip, Jaz, Orb, external hard disk drives, and more. Tape alternatives: DAT, Travan, Mammoth, AIT, DLT, LTO, and beyond. Optical storage: CD-RW, CD-R, and today's competing DVD formats. Other storage solutions: Magneto-optical, Flash memory, and solid-state disk drives. Enterprise storage strategies: storage area networks (SAN), network attached storage (NAS), RAID, and more. Storage for digital cameras, PDAs, MP3 players, Personal Video Recorders, and other next-generation devices. Storage on the Web: alternatives, limitations, and case studies. Preventing data loss-and what to do if the disaster has already happened. If you're planning for business growth and disaster recovery, or simply want the best storage "bang for the buck," The Essential Guide to Computer Data Storage delivers objective guidance - and realistic solutions.