Arguably the boom in storage capacity has been the most impressive advance in computer technology. Upgrades make sense in this category.

For $129 you can buy an 80-gigabyte hard drive that’s so fast you never need to wait for data retrieval.

Removable storage has advanced to the point that there’s little need for relatively costly devices like Iomega’s Jaz and Zip drives or Syquest’s removable hard disk cartridges for data backup and storage. For several years, recordable CDs have come standard with computers. They enable users to store up to 650 megabytes of data on a disc that costs less than 20 cents and can be read by nearly any computer.

If you don’t have recordable CD capability, this upgrade makes sense. The recorder/player is available for less than $100 and works essentially like a floppy disc drive. Get standard CD burning software, such as Adaptec’s Easy CD Creator, which is not only inexpensive ($79), but also dummy-proof.

The only reason to think twice is to consider a recordable DVD instead. The prices of these devices have dropped to the near pedestrian $500 level and they offer 4.7 gigabytes of storage per disc, the equivalent of seven CD discs.

Tip: Backups are essential. Companies like DataMechanix charge an average of $800 to recover lost data from a crashed hard drive—when it can be recovered.

Another tip: Since the media is so inexpensive, record only once per disc then use a new disc for each subsequent backup. Every time you record, you run a risk of failure or loss of data.