I use Carbonite on two of my computers.
Win 7 (Dell 3.4Ghz) is my primary Desktop and I have about 15GB backed up. Initial backup took 3 days.
XP Pro (Dell 933Mhz) is my Web Server and I have about 30GB backed up. Initial backup to about 6 days.
Now they both update regularly and it only takes a few minutes each time. Restore as mentioned is simplke and straight forward to use.
I have 20MB download and 2MB upload with my Brighthouse Cable connection.
If you want to keep costs down for Cloud storage you might consider Wuala. The difference between Wuala and other cloud storage is you can trade space on your own PC and get free access to Wuala's cloud storage (otherwise you can just buy the space you need).
The Wuala Trading FAQ explains how it works in detail.
I've supplemented my paid for cloud storage with 25G from Wuala, which works fine for me as I have plenty of unused space.
Whilst searching for the full feature list for this post, I came across an article with promo codes to add +13G of free storage to Wuala (I've added them and they worked fine at this time). The article mentions 'Pro' features which is outdated as Wuala now includes these for all accounts.
Article
Features include;
Security & Privacy
Backup & Versioning
Sync
Store & Access
Share
Collaborate
Trade (up to 100G I think) or Buy
The time it takes to upload the initial backups will depend on your connection speed. If it's good set the bandwidth limits to high and leave to run overnight. Once the initial backup is completed drop these settings down to about 15-20% of the max, and the rest will take care of itself.
Oaken - Interesting concept. I don't know if I'll go that route but I'll think about it :)
i'm sure i've read somewhere recently about an online backup company who send you a harddrive through the mail or fedex (or whatever). you fill it up, send it back to them, and they make the files available to you online.
been looking through my browser history and googling, but can't find the name of the company. sorry.
Wuala is not for everybody necessarily. Wuala users can opt to contribute idle resources that Wuala then uses to reduce costs for bandwidth, electrical power, etc.
"A complete backup of your encrypted files is always kept on our servers, so that it can always be accessed and restored. The Wuala cloud serves as an optimization that allows us to operate a large-scale infrastructure at low cost and to provide you with better performance."
As far as I know, there is no perfect cloud storage solution as yet. Yet having used a number of solutions over time, Wuala is the only one so far for which I have not seen any major security alerts- unlike recent articles for Dropbox (I also have Dropbox premium account). As far as my redundant data backup portion is concerned I've been very happy with Wuala thus far...
100gb is alot to leave on a cloud, especially since cloud solutions haven't really been put through there paces yet.
granted i'm a skeptic regarding anything online but i'd be really damn picky leaving anything on a cloud storage solution.
here's a list of what i can only presume are good services
Directory of Services « Cloud Storage: Keep it in the Cloud
you could try looking through those and see if any of them fit your needs.
gazz - thanks for the link :)
I agree with those who say it's best to get a good external HD and put everything there. I still don't like the idea of Cloud Computing. I like to have my stuff on my device in my home.
i suppose it's better to have a backup at home and online too - in case your house gets flooded, burned down, burgled etc etc...
it all depends how important the data is to you, and how much of it you have.
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