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Tech Tips
Choosing the Right Media to Transport Data for Electronic Discovery
When electronic documents are identified as potentially responsive to a legal document request, a company must decide how to capture the original data and transport the copies for use in the case. The amount of data to be transferred is an important consideration when selecting a data storage device. The ease of use for each option must also be evaluated. Finally, it is important to consider the costs associated with each media type.
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Capacity
With a wide variety of capacity options—some in excess of 200 GB —hard drives offer one of the highest capacity choices for storing and transporting electronic data.
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Ease of Use
Many people choose to work with hard drives because they are fast and convenient. Portable external devices are simple to connect to USB and FireWire ports, and internal drives can be easily inserted into most desktop PCs.
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Affordability
The cost of using a hard drive to transfer data is very low, primarily because of the large capacity. Additional cost savings are realized because hard drives require no additional software, little or no training time is needed, and data transfer is very efficient.
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Ideal Use
USB and FireWire hard drives are an ideal choice for projects of every size.
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Capacity
Depending on the type of backup system used, backup tapes currently have a capacity of up to 320 GB. They are commonly used by corporations for the systematic backup of data for disaster recovery purposes.
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Ease of Use
There are many backup software packages available, each with an individual set of procedures for creating and restoring backup tapes. These procedures can be time consuming and technically complex.
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Affordability
In addition to the potentially high cost of hardware and software required for backup tape systems, the restoration process can be expensive.
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Ideal Use
While backup tapes are the most common choice for storage of data for disaster recovery, they are not optimal for data transfer. Backup tapes should be used only if the data to be transferred exists in no other media type (i.e.: hard drive, network drive, CD, etc.).
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Capacity
At up to 700 MB, CDs are a well-suited option for small amounts of data.
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Ease of Use
CD burners are now standard on most new computers. However, some training may be required to use the burning software.
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Affordability
Because most new computers already have the hardware, and the price of a blank CD is well under a dollar, the overall cost of using CDs for small amounts of data is very reasonable. However, if the project involves large amounts of data to be copied and transferred at one time, the time involved can translate to greater expense.
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Ideal Use
Due to the size limitation and the amount of time it takes to transfer large amounts of data to a CD, this option is best suited for small amounts of data.
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Capacity
With an average capacity of 4.7 GB, DVDs can hold six times more data than a CD. DVDs are a common choice for moderate amounts of data.
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Ease of Use
Like CDs, some training is required to use burning software and the process of transferring data to a DVD can be time consuming.
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Affordability
DVD burners and DVDs are relatively inexpensive, although they typically cost several times more than CDs for both hardware and media.
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Ideal Use
Due to the size limitation and the amount of time it takes to transfer large amounts of data to a CD, this option is best suited for small amounts of data.
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*Additional Consideration:
Whichever media option you choose, it is important to note that a critical element of any data collection process is maintaining the integrity of the data (including the preservation of meta data) during transfer to any storage media. Before you start to collect any data, consult with your IT staff to ensure proper techniques are used, or contact Applied Discovery for assistance.
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Law Technology News Award
Applied Discovery recognized as Product of the Year and Best Electronic Data Discovery System by the readers of Law Technology News... 
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Newsletter
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New ABA E-Discovery Resource on FRCP Amendments
The Discovery Revolution: E-Discovery Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, by Lewis and Roca LLP partner George L. Paul, Esq. and J.H. Cohn LLP director of IT security auditing Bruce H. Nearon, CPA. Order your copy from the ABA today...
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