online backup solutions

mrjames

mrjames

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after suffering a hard drive loss i'm going backup overboard now

backing up onto a wireless 2tb external hidden under the sofa, daily cloning of my system drive onto a bootable external drive, and now i'm looking at online backup too

I have maybe 1tb of stuff i'd like to store up there as a priority, but would put the other 2tb up there later

i'm looking at
1) live drive
2) backblaze
3) crashplan

i've downloaded the demos but it's hard to really figure out what's good and bad in 7 days

ideally they would:
1) be fast to upload to
2) unobtrusive software (so far so good with all 3)
3) have a good interface (functionally and aesthetically)
 
also great features would be online access to files, so i could store things on there (videos if possible) and access them remotely (streamed not downloaded) to another device.

also would be great if heaven forbid there was a disaster that wiped out all my backup disks, that I could get them to send me my data on a drive- crashplan do this but only for US customers



I was thinking about backing up onto another disk instead and leaving that at a friends house, so if that's better than cloud then I could do that
 
mrjames said:
I was thinking about backing up onto another disk instead and leaving that at a friends house, so if that's better than cloud then I could do that
Click to expand...

This is what I do......

Everything is stored on my PC then I back up to 2 separate 2TB HDDs, one of those is stored in my parents' safe :)

Whilst cloud storage is a good idea as another form of backup, the storage medium is out of your control and I suppose the worst case scenario is the company you're using for cloud storage goes bust and your data disappears?
 
This is who I use: http://www.backupsolutions.com/PCMac-pricing.php

They were the only provider to max out my 16Mbit up link... I will be renewing when my years subscription is up - I upload around 50G a week (mainly images of systems here).

I also have 3 onsite backups, so view backupsolutions as my "if everything goes pearshaped" solution. They don't do online streaming or recovery disks AFAIK, but that's fine with me :)....
 
I use two local backups, and then Amazon Glacier as a backup of last resort.

It takes a little while to upload for me, but that's mainly due to the crap international links from Hong Kong. You pay a bit of money to download the whole backup set....but this is a last resort, like if my apartment building burns down.

3USD a month for 300ish GB is excellent value imo.
 
I have gone with Crashplan having used it at work.

I don't have a particularly fast broadband and even with an initial upload to be processed of around 25GB it didn't take long to upload and made no noticeable difference to internet performance.

I have also set it up to back up to another PC on my network at home simultaneously and it can also backup to a friend or relatives machine at their location for added redundancy.

Some more impartial info here http://terrywhite.com/crashplan-finally-done/
 
I use livedrive for offsite/cloud backups. Works very well and I have about 1.5tb up there at the moment.
 
Russ77 said:
This is what I do......

Everything is stored on my PC then I back up to 2 separate 2TB HDDs, one of those is stored in my parents' safe :)

Whilst cloud storage is a good idea as another form of backup, the storage medium is out of your control and I suppose the worst case scenario is the company you're using for cloud storage goes bust and your data disappears?
Click to expand...

I agree. Back up to drive at home, and then (well, about to) start doing 1 backup a month on a drive to store at in laws. Do use Dropbox too for pics as an added thing, would like to think they are big enough to survive, or may look at what Apple do.
 
mid_gen said:
I use two local backups, and then Amazon Glacier as a backup of last resort.

It takes a little while to upload for me, but that's mainly due to the crap international links from Hong Kong. You pay a bit of money to download the whole backup set....but this is a last resort, like if my apartment building burns down.

3USD a month for 300ish GB is excellent value imo.
Click to expand...

+1

1p per gb per month is a good price. and you would think that amazon would be reliable backup provider. very quick uploads and downloads. you do need to pay for a client which may put some people off.
 
I use a free client, forget the name though, fastglacier? The free version is limited to 2 parallel uploads which is a bit slow but i wasn't in a hurry to get the initial backup set up there.
 
Crashplan for me, amongst the various other backups/copies etc. I have. I punted just over 1TB to them. I should have gone for the "send them a disc" option for the initial load, but it was amusing to watch my broadband flat out for the four weeks the initial upload took!

  • A subset of that data is also on SkyDrive for docs/photos I want to have immediate access from any of my laptops/dekstop/surface.
  • NAS for immediate resilience against a failed disk. All my data is on the NAS (when at home), or SkyDrive (on the road).
  • Acronis for weekly backups to the NAS and then to Crashplan of my devices for bare metal restores.
  • Finally a local HDD off the NAS once a week for local restore in the event of a NAS failure without having to pull back from Crashplan.
Belt'n'braces and then some .. but I guess that my IT background paranoia!
 
I rent my own private server (from backupsy) and use duplicati software which deals with creating the backups and sending it to my server.

Cost me about $10USD / month (the duplicati software is free), a bit more than other backup services, but it's good to know how much resources I really have, and that no one else is on that server apart from me. Also I can arrange everything the way I want, get other computers in my household backed up etc.

This is just how I do my backups because I am a "Computer Scientist" so things like this interest me :).

Have a look at Duplicati, it backs up completely hidden and I believe is compatible with services like SkyDrive etc (you don't need your own private server).
 
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jryans10 said:
I rent my own private server (from backupsy) and use duplicati software which deals with creating the backups and sending it to my server.

Cost me about $10USD / month (the duplicati software is free), a bit more than other backup services, but it's good to know how much resources I really have, and that no one else is on that server apart from me. Also I can arrange everything the way I want, get other computers in my household backed up etc.

This is just how I do my backups because I am a "Computer Scientist" so things like this interest me :).

Have a look at Duplicati, it backs up completely hidden and I believe is compatible with services like SkyDrive etc (you don't need your own private server).
Click to expand...
So apart from backups what do you do with this VM you rent? The prices start to steepen once you need more than 250GB storage. It would cost me $50/month.

I can't help but think you're paying for unnecessary CPU/RAM when what you really need is pure cloudy storage.
 
Plus the backupsy servers are in the US - I found that a complete no-no for fast transactions (the US based services were very slow fro me and I'm on an unmanaged 60/16 link).
 
DuncanF said:
So apart from backups what do you do with this VM you rent? The prices start to steepen once you need more than 250GB storage. It would cost me $50/month.

I can't help but think you're paying for unnecessary CPU/RAM when what you really need is pure cloudy storage.
Click to expand...

Yeah you have a point. I personally have no where near 250GB in terms of files, so even though I've had all my computers backed up, I'm only at about 30GB. Although I may take out CrashPlan as well as a secondary backup.

As for servers, most of theirs are in the US but the one I'm renting is in the Netherlands.

Thanks.
 
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