One common mistake that people faced with a need to archive their information make is to confuse a transfer with a backup. Let's make this clear from early in the game. Moving your files onto other storage media and deleting the originals is a transfer, copying your data to two different sets of media is a backup. The bottom line is that you should always have an archive with two identical copies of your data and both should be stored in different locations. Archiving seems a noble enough goal, but it is often frustrated by human nature.
Most computer users are messy, dropping their digital files all over the place.
With every computer shipping today with at least a one gigabyte hard drive, the traditional floppy disk seems a hilarious way to try to back up your files. Archiving digital data begins with good file strategy. If you use Windows 3.1, your files and applications are arranged into directories, accessible from the Program Manager. Windows '95 and Macintosh users save their files into folders. Both amount to the same thing when it comes to archiving.