If you depend on your hard drive to save critical information, you could be sail boating without a paddle. When things get sticky, you better have a backup plan.

Gone are the days of storage floppies and zip drives... CD-RW drives do an excellent job in making cheap backups and just about every new computer is equipped with one. As computers and software evolve, so will media. DVD burner drives are already optional equipment on many computers, and will probably become a standard within the next year. Are you ready for a DVD burner?

We sure are! Read on to learn more about flagship products from 1st tier manufacturers, we test drives from Plextor, Panasonic and Pioneer in this round-up.