Best Online Backup Option?

[amorak]

Need 25-50 GB of Space to backup photographs and critical docs.

I'd like something that I am able to map as a network drive somehow, as I already have a small program that automatically backs up these files to my home server... However, after getting married and having many precious moments recorded solely on digital mediums, I'd really like to have an off-site backup in case my house burns down or something.

Any thoughts?

I'd like something, obviously, as cheap as possible, as my wife won't appreciate yet another tech-related monthly charge (newsgroup fee already seem foreign to her) given that we're talking about getting an american netflix account.

Dropbox seems awesome, but pricey - anything cheap, simple, reliable and can be network-mapped out there to give me at least 25GB?

Thanks!

[fredr123]

Something kind of similar came up recently: http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=100076

There were some decent responses in there about online backup.

[Sliver]

We use MozyPro at my business. I don't know what I pay, but I have a friend who is a "computer guy" and he said to go with this so maybe it's worth checking out for you.

You change your avatar a lot, eh?

[amorak]

Originally Posted by Sliver

You change your avatar a lot, eh?

mine was a homage to a recently departed poster, so in his honour I've changed it back to something more awesome.

before that it was a santa-stig, had to change it up

[amorak]

Originally Posted by fredr123

Something kind of similar came up recently: http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=100076

There were some decent responses in there about online backup.

Thanks. Just looking for something cheap and semi-reliable. If they go tits up I won't care too much if I am paying month to month and have the data duplicated at my place - Just want it offsite for disaster recovery.

I almost wonder if I shouldn't just buy some cheap webhosting with like 25-50gb storage and use that

[photon]

Cheap webhosting advertises tons of storage, but if you actually use that storage they'll usually complain or just boot you off, and most have verbiage in the ToS against using their service as a backup service.

Lots of inexpensive services in that link, or just use Amazon S3 with an S3 client like DragonDisk.

[sclitheroe]

Mozy is the way to go in my opinion. $5 a month, unlimited storage. Just install it on the machine acting as your home server, and away you go.

[Mad Mel]

Related question for you real IT people out there...

Anyone using online backup for business disaster recovery purposes? Long story short, it turns out that if our building flooded and our servers floated away, we'd have been hooped. Cause: stupid people who don't know how to do their soon-to-be-ended jobs.

My thought is that regular offsite full tape backups combined with incremental online backups to a reliable service provider (Amazon?) would be effective. But I don't know disaster & recovery planning very well.

I'd like to sound a little knowledgeable even though I'm not when I go have a freakout at our national IT leader later this week.

[amorak]

Originally Posted by photon

Cheap webhosting advertises tons of storage, but if you actually use that storage they'll usually complain or just boot you off, and most have verbiage in the ToS against using their service as a backup service.

Lots of inexpensive services in that link, or just use Amazon S3 with an S3 client like DragonDisk.

Photon:

Thanks for the suggestion - I signed up for the S3 account and use a freeware option - always sync, which I was already using to backup to my server!

Allways sync has S3-compatibility built in!

I have a question about S3 - you have to create a uniquely-identifiable 'bucket' name - so I created one with my.name-photos. Do I need to do that for all ym backup types, or do you create one bucket called my.name and then somehow make sub-folders for photos, my docs, etc?

[photon]

Not sure about that, I've never done an S3 backup myself, I just have a number of friends that have done it and really like it.

Also keep in mind that with S3 you pay per unit usage, so depending on how much you have, you could eventually reach a point where you'd pay more per month than Mozy's unlimited for $5. I trust Amazon a bit more than I'd trust Mozy, but it's something to consider.

[amorak]

Very true - It's about $.15 a GB and I have 20GB to transfer, so it's only a couple bucks a month. I am happy with S3 because it is integrated into AllwaysSync, the program I was already using for home server backups and to transfer DL'ed movies to the server for subsequent access by the 3 WDTV devices spread throughout the home.

It allows me to run one single auto-transfer program in the background when the PC is idle, love it!

[Byrns]

I've been using Crashplan for online storage, and they even have a free option that allows you to back up to "friends" PCs.

When I was looking, I used this site for a good overview of whats available.
http://online-storage-service-review.toptenreviews.com/

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by photon

I trust Amazon a bit more than I'd trust Mozy, but it's something to consider.

General Electric trusts Mozy

I trust Mozy because they are owned by EMC. I'm highly confident that EMC isn't going to let them screw up - it would look terrible for EMC if Mozy lost data, considering that's the industry EMC is in.

Overall too, in a multi-tier backup and recovery plan, you only need one of say three sources (ie. live, nearline, offline) to survive - you don't need absolute faith in your backup solution if its not the only egg in your basket.

Overall though, I agree wholly with your overall sentiment - you need to use a provider you trust, and you need to determine how trustworthy they need to be, and how much you're willing to pay for that level of trust. It's a complicated set of decisions to make.

[CKPThunder]

Do any of these online backup sites offer packages that include a NAS? My library of video's, photo's etc are all on a NAS. I'd be willing to pay a bit more if they offered this service with unlimited data.

[photon]

Not saying I don't trust Mozy, but if I had to choose between the two I'd probably pick Amazon, in a worst-case-which-company-is-more-likely-to-go-under kind of way.

Forgot about them being owned by EMC, that does increase confidence.

[photon]

Originally Posted by CKPThunder

Do any of these online backup sites offer packages that include a NAS? My library of video's, photo's etc are all on a NAS. I'd be willing to pay a bit more if they offered this service with unlimited data.

I think Moby supports network shares where Carbonite doesn't, but that was a while ago so I could be wrong or it may have changed.

CrashPlan also doesn't let you backup a network share.

Windows supports directory linking though so you can just setup a directory as a link to a NAS and any backup program can then access it.

What I want is my NAS to actually do the backing up (so my PC doesn't have to be on), but that'd have to be built into the NAS, and I don't think I've seen one that supports Mozy. But I have seen lots of NASes that support protocols like rsync or ones that run linux, so you can install stuff to get it backing up to S3.

[CKPThunder]

Originally Posted by photon

I think Moby supports network shares where Carbonite doesn't, but that was a while ago so I could be wrong or it may have changed.

CrashPlan also doesn't let you backup a network share.

Windows supports directory linking though so you can just setup a directory as a link to a NAS and any backup program can then access it.

What I want is my NAS to actually do the backing up (so my PC doesn't have to be on), but that'd have to be built into the NAS, and I don't think I've seen one that supports Mozy. But I have seen lots of NASes that support protocols like rsync or ones that run linux, so you can install stuff to get it backing up to S3.

I think Mozy (I think you meant Mozy) only has support for network shares on their business plan which means I'd have to pay per PC & server (not a problem) but I don't think it includes unlimited data though. I think they charge for something like 15 cents per GB. Backblaze doesn't support it yet either. They make a good point stating that if I use a NAS to backup online, then in theory I could be backing up a multiple number of computers.

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by Mad Mel

Related question for you real IT people out there...

Anyone using online backup for business disaster recovery purposes? Long story short, it turns out that if our building flooded and our servers floated away, we'd have been hooped. Cause: stupid people who don't know how to do their soon-to-be-ended jobs.

My thought is that regular offsite full tape backups combined with incremental online backups to a reliable service provider (Amazon?) would be effective. But I don't know disaster & recovery planning very well.

I'd like to sound a little knowledgeable even though I'm not when I go have a freakout at our national IT leader later this week.

Were there no tape backups being used?

If you are a small office you might just want to invest in a few external hard drives and have someone take them home with them on a scheduled basis, if you have no backups and work in a company where you actually have dedicated IT staff then its wholly unacceptable.

It depends how much data you are working with, IMO an LTO3 (800GB/Tape) system is the way to go if you have that much data. This is the backup system we use. For the Calgary location(s) we look after we go though roughly 18 LTO3 tapes/week for full backups. Normally we only go through 1 or 2 for differentials durring the week, at the Engineering location with CAD they go though 3-4 differentials during the week.

Differentials M-F Full on Saturday. The monthly full are kept offsite for 365 days, the weekly (non monthly) full are kept offsite for 14 days. Noe tapes are reused for 365 days.

With takes being roughly $40/tape pre labeled it can get expensive. In Calgary Iron Mountain charges $30/ scheduled trip (pickup drop off) + minimum storage cahrge $117. Normal monthly bill for a 4 full tape location is roughly $375/month.

[photon]

Originally Posted by CKPThunder

I think Mozy (I think you meant Mozy) only has support for network shares on their business plan which means I'd have to pay per PC & server (not a problem) but I don't think it includes unlimited data though. I think they charge for something like 15 cents per GB. Backblaze doesn't support it yet either. They make a good point stating that if I use a NAS to backup online, then in theory I could be backing up a multiple number of computers.

Lol yeah Mozy.

They do have a good point, they should make a "home network" offering that supports a NAS, even for more money. More and more people have home storage appliances, or Windows Home servers, or that kind of thing.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by photon

Lol yeah Mozy.

They do have a good point, they should make a "home network" offering that supports a NAS, even for more money. More and more people have home storage appliances, or Windows Home servers, or that kind of thing.

iSCSI...they'll never see it coming