Recordable CD drives are rapidly dropping in price and becoming as affordable as tape drives.
Tapes require special drives and software to read.
CDs are not affected by electromagnetic interference, are more heat resistant than tape and can be read by any CD drive sold today. This means that you do not need special software or hardware to restore the data back onto a hard disk before accessing it, since it can be read directly from the CD in a matter of seconds. Installation Installation of an RCD drive is usually relatively simple. In my case, I installed an external Pinnacle RCD-1000 with the SCSI controller card included in the kit and recorded my first CD in about two hours. I removed the case, found an open card slot to install the card and closed up the case.