What's the worst thing that can happen to a computer? Worse than a hard disk crash, virus infection, spare assault, denial-of-service attack, hacker take-over, fire, flood or some other human, mechanical or natural disaster is a faulty backup when it is really needed. If the computer blows up, as long as the data is backed up securely, it can be recovered. Tape backup is still popular among business users because of its long use and cost-effectiveness per megabyte of data. But like anything having to do with a computer, backing up to tape isn't foolproof. Tape drives, backup tapes and tape backup software can fail. This article offers a list of suggestions on how one can minimize the chances of a tape backup failing in the first place, according to Doug Owens, managing director of CBL's San Diego laboratory and resident tape expert.