Offsite data backup

[KielC]

I would like to start backing up my data off site. Currently I backup my desktop to my "server" computer. I use rsync and have it run automatically. But If there was ever a fire/flood I would loose all my data.

Any recommendations on the best way? Are there any decent websites that offer and upload service?

I could just copy to a USB stick every couple weeks and leave it at work.

[llama64]

I havn't tried it myself, but I'm considering it: http://www.jungledisk.com/

Alternatively you could just rent a server somewhere and backup to there.

[Shazam]

http://mozy.com

[KielC]

Originally Posted by llama64

I havn't tried it myself, but I'm considering it: http://www.jungledisk.com/

Alternatively you could just rent a server somewhere and backup to there.

Looks like jungledisk is a software front end to an Amazon service called S3.

http://aws.amazon.com/s3/

Very cheap, only $0.15 per gb-month.

[sclitheroe]

Mozy is only $4.95 for an unlimited amount of data. It differs from Jungledisk and other S3 based systems in how it works though - in Mozy, if you delete a file from your local machine, in 30 days its gone from Mozy as well, so its truly a backup solution, not an archival solution.

Mozy has been excellent for me. I have about 550 gigs of data backed up with them, and I have had to contact their technical support a few times due to bugs in the Mac client that I found, and they have been great to deal with. I highly recommend them for online backup. It also helps that they are owned by EMC, the 800 pound gorilla in the storage market, in my opinion - they aren't going anywhere.

Jungledisk gets good reviews too, but for my usage, its too expensive. Beware too that there are costs above and beyond the $0.15 per GB...there are transfer fees, access fees, and storage fees, so its more expensive than it looks.

Try Mozy out for free, you get 2 gigs free for an unlimited amount of time.

[KielC]

Mozy sounds good, especially since my critical files would be less than 2gb. But it doesn't look like they have a Linux client.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by KielC

Mozy sounds good, especially since my critical files would be less than 2gb. But it doesn't look like they have a Linux client.

Dropbox might be a good choice in that case as well. I believe its $100 for 50 gigs per year.

Dropbox is also interesting because it keeps copies of data synchronized between machines as well as "in the cloud"....I use that one to keep my photo library synched between 3 machines and it works great.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Dropbox might be a good choice in that case as well. I believe its $100 for 50 gigs per year.

Dropbox is also interesting because it keeps copies of data synchronized between machines as well as "in the cloud"....I use that one to keep my photo library synched between 3 machines and it works great.

You can also get 2 gigs for free.

It really works great.

[photon]

Even a cheap dreamhost account would probably work fine, get it when they have the 95% off coupons, $20 for two years, they claim unlimited storage and xfer (or near enough).

[Russic]

+3 for dropbox. I can't remote into my work computer due to security restrictions so I just copy all my important files to my dropbox so I don't have one of those "oh damn I left the file at work" moments.

[photon]

I also use Dropbox, though the inability to specify folders is a bit disappointing; I was kind of hoping to use it to keep my code folders synced between my laptop and desktop.

Syncplicity is another one that's good and they just added a Mac client into beta so I'll probably check that one out again.

Stay away from SugarSync, their product is ok (well it didn't work for me at all, but I think my mirrored drives at work were an issue), but their support is HORRIBLE.

None of those really are a system backup type app though, especially dropbox which you can only have one folder tree synced. If you are already used to rsync, Amazon S3 or a cheap shared hosting with lots of storage is the way to go, just make sure to encrypt your data first if you are at all paranoid.

One really cool feature I've noticed with dropbox is if I add a common file that it already has, it adds it right away without uploading it! It must do a MD5 hash on the file and if it has a match doesn't bother uploading. Very cool.

[KielC]

Originally Posted by photon

I also use Dropbox, though the inability to specify folders is a bit disappointing; I was kind of hoping to use it to keep my code folders synced between my laptop and desktop.

Yeah, having to put everything I want sync'd into one single folder wouldn't really work for what I want to do.

Ideally I would just like to be able to run my rsync script except have it backed up to an off site computer instead of my local server.

[photon]

Yeah check out Amazon S3, pay per usage is good. You could use Dreamhost or other shared hosting as well, though strictly speaking using rsync to store files for backup on Dreamhost is against their ToS.