Online backup - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Buzzard · 08-01-2009, 01:17 PM

Anyone using an online backup for files? I've heard of this one http://www.carbonite.com/ Seems like a decent deal. It automatically uploads any new files, you dont do anything. Any cons to this?

DrJ · 08-01-2009, 01:26 PM

Any reason why you want online backup? Are you on the go a lot? What do you plan to back up?

Just reading through the site, they recommend that you upload no more than a "couple of dozen GB" b/c the transfer speeds would be way to slow.

I just use my trusty external and when I'm on the go, I use DropBox.

https://www.getdropbox.com/

Free and provides 2 GB of free storage. You can also share folders between other computers that automatically update as soon as anything is changed. Plus, you can revert back and recover deleted files. However, starting August something, they will only store changes made to files for 30 days but you can upgrade.

I highly recommend DropBox. If you need more storage, you can upgrade (costs more than carbonite) but I have had nothing but great experience with DropBox.

Buzzard · 08-01-2009, 01:29 PM

It was recommended by kim komando (us tech radio show). No other particular reason. Just seems easy. I've got tons of pics and music. Thats about what I'm most concerned about.

DrJ · 08-01-2009, 01:36 PM

I guess it would be handy to have it all backed up on the go but I guess just be aware of potential speed problems if you have a lot to backup (which it sounds like you do!)

Maybe just stick with a huge external? (would be much cheaper, too)

Buzzard · 08-01-2009, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrJ

Maybe just stick with a huge external? (would be much cheaper, too)

Yeah..that's what I was considering, but she's a firm believer that externals fail too at the worst time. I dunno. Carbonite is a major sponsor of her show sooo...... I guess she's obviously gonna flog it. Guess that's why i posted....to see what others recommend.

photon · 08-01-2009, 02:00 PM

http://www.jungledisk.com/

Another alternative.

Microsoft is getting ready to launch their cloud computing solution (like Amazon S3) and rumour has it that they're going to undercut the costs significantly, so that might be an option too (not using the cloud computing portion, just the storage).

I've been thinking of doing this, slow transfer isn't that big a deal, you only have to upload something once.

But I probably wouldn't back up all my media (kids' ripped DVDs, etc), just the more important stuff, then a few GB would be plenty. Then use local backups for the bigger stuff (I have mirrored drives on a NAS).

FlamingLonghorn · 08-01-2009, 02:02 PM

I've done business with Carbonite... stellar guys! Product is supposed to work great as well.

photon · 08-01-2009, 02:02 PM

Forgot to mention, my only other concern would be security... files should be encrypted on the remote server and all that, but without seeing the code or something I can't really know if they have a good implementation. So that's a concern for any remote storage solution for me.

photon · 08-01-2009, 02:05 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ackup_services

Here's a list.

sclitheroe · 08-01-2009, 04:43 PM

I am coming up on a terabyte of data stored with Mozy, for $5 a month...It works reasonably well, is owned by EMC (a major player in the enterprise storage market), and they have lots and lots of corporate customers so you know they will be around for a while.

llama64 · 08-04-2009, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrJ

Maybe just stick with a huge external? (would be much cheaper, too)

snicker

I use Dropbox for my backup needs - though I don't have much more then a couple hundred megabytes of data to backup.

It's handy to sync onto multiple computers though - plus the sharing capability is sweet.