Most users will back up only after they have lost important data, and then only until they feel invincible again. In practice, it is ridiculous to back up the server to floppies. You can, however, back up the server to another hard disk, either removable or fixed. Removable disks are handy because if the server or disk fails, you can pop out the damaged equipment and pop in the backup disk. However, the vast majority of network administrators back up to tape.
Tape is inexpensive, convenient, and widely available.
Network managers may complain bitterly about tape and its ills, but basically, it is the backup medium of choice. A new option in the backup bag of tricks is optical disks. The newer rewritable optical disks are handier for backup, since they boast a huge amount of storage and are reusable. Optical disks don't wear out as quickly as tape, but they are much more expensive. The most common tape format is standardized by the Quarter Inch Committee .