Internet data backup service - recommendation?

CommonTater · 31 Mar 2010

Desslok said:

CommonTater said:

Desslok said:

I have researched this, and when I feel like actually spending the money, I will buy the Acronis service. I just probably won't do it, then my house will burn down and I'll be very sorry...

How much will that cost you in a year?

I'm betting you can buy a second external hard disk for less.

Newegg.ca - HITACHI XL Desk 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive HXSDNB5001BBB (0S02483) - External Hard Drives

I have several extra drives laying around, thats not the point. I don't want another drive with data on it to burn down in a fire, or ge trashed by some other natural disaster. Automated offsite backup is really the only safe way to have an offline backup that is dependably kept up to date, for me at least.

Well... until the server site gets burned down in a fire or gets trashed by some other natural disaster

There's no totally safe backup plan, the best you can do is hedge your bets. I have 2 drives, one here and one at a friend's house... and I deliberately picked a friend who doesn't own computers... It's also not perfect but I feel a lot better having my data in the hands of someone I can trust with it.

As I pointed out, uploading to an off-site company does not guarantee your stuff won't be scanned (or outright oggled) but as you point out it is indeed safer than having it all in one place.

Desslok · 31 Mar 2010

Actually my other option is to just get a webhosting site that has unlimited sotrage and is about $5 per month. Most of the decent ones do daily backups of your website. I am looking at inMotion hosting at the moment.

Victek · 31 Mar 2010

Desslok said:

I think you missed my point. I'm not worried about encryption. I am more concerned about keeping family photos safe. The problem wth backing up to multiple USB drives is that the drives are still at home. If the house burns down, gets flooded, blows away in a tornado/hurricane, erathquake, etc ALL of those redundant drives get destroyed with the house. Redundancy is great for a hardware failure, but thats about it. ANd even then you can usually recover your data froma failed drive.

.
No, I got it. I'm saying because no one solution is without risk you have to use multiple solutions. For instance Microsoft's Live Mesh is a free service (only requires a free Live mail or hotmail account) that makes data synchronization between a local PC and the online desktop really easy. It currently has a 5 gig capacity. There is also SkyDrive (free) which has a 25 gig capacity. You could get a big USB flashdrive and keep it in a safety deposit box at the bank when you're not refreshing the backup. There are many options. The more important matter is to choose solutions that are easy enough so over time you will use them consistently. I'm talking from experience of course - some of it pretty bad

RknRusty · 03 Apr 2010

Thanks for all the replies, that gave me a lot of good ideas.

The spam potential pretty much turns me off of the idea of using an online service. I hadn't thought of using a cheap web host. The only thing about that is they don't have a restore feature like the backup sites do. I actually already have access to a domain on Lycos with a small website that I maintain. I'll check out its capacity. And I'm pretty sure I can make those folders private too. I don't know if that keeps bots out though. Would it be safer to make ISOs instead of uploading piles of files?

So far, the extra external HD sounds like the best solution. Plus it doesn't take forever to upload 30 gigs of files.

Rusty

Ethen123 · 02 Mar 2011

Cubetech site has helped me a lot in Online data backup service and in other services.Though its upto you I can suggest you to get in touch with them once and I hope they will help you thoroughly. They also provide offsite backup, windows 7 backup, Linux backup, internet backup. so we can use this service for our data backup of our work projects, financial records and other personal or professional data.

Cr00zng · 02 Mar 2011

Desslok said:

Actually my other option is to just get a webhosting site that has unlimited sotrage and is about $5 per month. Most of the decent ones do daily backups of your website. I am looking at inMotion hosting at the moment.

Well, that's what I've been doing for the last 7-8 years and they host my websites as well. I've started with other hosting company, but my sites are at InMotion now.

The business plan gives you more flexibility with secured FTP access, shared SSL, and unlimited storage of course. Confidential data is encrypted prior to uploading that includes pictures as well. I don't trust any of the "in the cloud" providers with my data, much less with my pictures or video. On the other hand, the FTP server is a great place to store your security, administrator, etc., tool-kits; it comes very handy at various site visits.