| Computer Related > Online back-up | Computing Issues |
| Thread Author: FocalPoint | Replies: 13 |
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New Tue 10 Apr 12 15:42
Online back-up - FocalPoint
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After a conversation over the weekend on the subject, I'm wondering if my practice of backing up documents, photos and other important files using an external hard drive is good enough. The stuff I would hate to lose and which would involve a huge effort to reinstate consists of downloaded material like insurance documents and stuff related to my interests in music researched on the internet; thousands of photos both in original RAW format and edited versions; documents like copies of letters, copies of tax returns, Christmas mailing list - but most of all, musical scores which represent literally hundreds of hours of work. No doubt I could list more if I trawled through my folders. You get the idea, anyway. My nightmare is that the house gets burgled (it's never happened yet, but there's always a first time), the computer gets nicked and I'm not up to date with my back-ups, or the external hard drive (which I keep separately) is discovered and nicked too. I'm confident you expert guys will have the answers and presumably it involves online storage. What costs are involved and what do you get in return? Is there some system, say, whereby I can press a button at the end of each day and just the files I have added/altered are backed up? And if my computer was stolen could everything personal be re-instated - just like that? Any advice will be gratefully received. |
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New Tue 10 Apr 12 16:14
Online back-up - diddy1234
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do a three point backup. A bit overkill but then you will always have a copy handy. I only do a backup to an external hard drive but two external hard drives is good (redundancy) or even take the external hard drive to another location (say a relatives house etc). That way if your house were to get burgled / burnt down you still have data. The downside is that you need to backup twice. I don't think online storage is secure enough yet and secondly, whoever you store your data with can suddenly choose to remove or restrict your access to the data. That could happen if a different business decision was made. but where do you draw the line without going really anal on this sort of stuff ? Most companies perform three point backups (one local and one remote location). Last edited by: diddy1234 on Tue 10 Apr 12 at 16:15
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New Wed 11 Apr 12 14:57
Online back-up - FocalPoint
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| Sorry - this is a bump - would really appreciate some more guidance on this topic. I've been researching online storage and am still unclear about the choices. |
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New Wed 11 Apr 12 16:38
Online back-up - rtj70
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I have no experience on this myself but someone who does will probably be along. I'm thinking someone like Smokie who has lots of data/files. But how you backup to an online repository/service very much depends on the amount of data you have to secure. Personally I don't use such a service but I do keep a few backups. Most of my documents are on the Mac which automatically backs up to a USB drive using the Mac OS X Time Machine facility. But I also backup to my NAS on a regular basis (only the changed documents using a simple rsync). I then occasionally synchronise the contents of the NAS with a USB drive. The NAS also holds media files, and some other large files like virtual machines, ISOs for software etc. So it's currently got about 1.2Tb on it.... so backing that up to the Internet will take some time and won't be free. Which brings me onto another option you might want to consider... backing up your files to a friend's house. There's a few options for this I would guess but it might be the cheapest option. It does require the remote storage to be accessible to you over the Internet and always on. It does impact on the friend's Internet data and electricity usage but if you only synchronise changes (with initial full backup taken at your house) then it might be an option if you trust them. Anyway some services for what you want are: - Crashplan - but some ISP's throttle bandwidth to them (www.crashplan.com/) but at $50/year it's cheap for unlimited storage and 10Gb is half that price. - BackBlaze - but I've read their speeds are not great (also about $50/year) Using Crashplan would be a free way of setting up the backup to a friend's house option. You could reciprocate and offer them the same service. |
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New Wed 11 Apr 12 17:10
Online back-up - rtj70
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| Looking on the BT website just now I see they offer a free Digital Vault service for up to 5GB of data. Better than nothing but that wouldn't cover my photos or music. 50GB is available for £4.99/month. A bit expensive. |
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New Wed 11 Apr 12 17:11
Online back-up - smokie
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Not me, although I have quite a bit of data, I keep it all backed up "in house", along with a large USB drive on which the more important data is held, which SWMBO keeps in her drawer at work. This thread prompted me to look at these services last night. My conclusion for my circumstances was that they would be useful if I needed to access my data from elsewhere but at the moment I can manage quite well with large removable drives. btw some ISPs and some of those cloud storage companies do give you some free online space, but it isn't much - my pics and vids are around 50Gb and Virgin give me 2Gb for free. |
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New Wed 11 Apr 12 17:13
Online back-up - smokie
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Of course, if you are just talking about scans of documents then the data size would not be that great. I've known people set up a free email account and email themselves "important" stuff, but you wouldn't want to do too much like that. USB sticks are also very cheap these days, 32Gb for £16 or less (slower speed ones anyway). |
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New Wed 11 Apr 12 17:35
Online back-up - lancara
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I use Google Picasa paid storage for photos - approx 22k NEFs, Tiffs & jpegs = 200GB = cost $50 per annum. Leave the computer on overnight syncing files support.google.com/picasa/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=39567 |
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New Wed 11 Apr 12 18:41
Online back-up - John H
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>> Sorry - this is a bump - would really appreciate some more guidance on this >> topic. How much storage space do you need? The free offers range from 1 or 2GB (many providers), 25GB (Microsoft Live), or even 50GB with ADrive www.adrive.com/personal_basic . You could double your allowance if you split the files to allow your partner/spouse to store half. >> I've been researching online storage and am still unclear about the choices. >> Which were the top three providers that you found from your research? |
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New Wed 11 Apr 12 18:53
Online back-up - FocalPoint
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"How much storage space do you need?" Documents: 5GB and growing Photos: 25GB and growing "Which were the top three providers that you found from your research?" If only the situation was as clear-cut as that! It depends how much you want to pay and what features you want - which I don't know, as I haven't done this before! |
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New Wed 11 Apr 12 22:35
Online back-up - rtj70
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Most of my data (and probably most members' data on here I would guess) does not change frequently. You are just adding to it. You say the photos are growing but the old files are not changing. So Smokie's approach is not a bad one - keep a copy of important data somewhere else. If you had a couple of USB drives you could backup/sync to one and take it to a relative's house. Then next time you use the other drive. And then swap the one at the relative's house. Backup times won't be that long if you only sync new and updated files. And leave old ones on there (so protects against deletes). Not as efficient if you're rotating say two backup drives. I'd be concerned about using a company in case the backups are lost if they go out of business. On Windows PCs I tend to use a simple backup method rather than relying on a backup product. So something like ROBOCOPY to synchronise two folders on two different drives. On a Mac (or Linux) I'd use rsync. I'd need to check but my NAS (a Netgear product) I think supports rsync backups to elsewhere. So when I said about sync'ing to a friends house two of these might be useful. You'd backup the PCs to your NAS and they'd keep in sync over the Internet. You'd be dependent on someone else's Internet etc. |
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New Wed 11 Apr 12 22:56
Online back-up - Zero
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30gb of online (cloud) storage for the home user is not cheap. You have the classic symptoms of home backup overkill. You need to prioritise your data. Stuff you need to access from anywhere, important stuff - lets call it instant home recovery Thats goes on cloud storage, It won't be much so it might even be free. As far as the other stuff goes, really, its not that important that it needs multiple backups in multiple places. One back up, to a USB hard drive is fine. If you feel really keen about it, a 32gb usb thumb drive is about 15 quid, leave it with a friend or at work. Don't get carried away. |
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New Thu 12 Apr 12 00:21
Online back-up - rtj70
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As usual Zero is right. Most data that you absolutely need access from anywhere etc will probably be free. The rest a USB based backup is fine. Which is why I said backup to a USB drive and take to friend/relative. And then have another drive you can swap it with. Most of my 1.2Tb+ does not change at all. I just add to it - photos, home movies, etc. |
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New Thu 12 Apr 12 15:04
Online back-up - AshT
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I use an extra HDD in my main PC back it up - all photos, letters, etc are kept on that PC. I use Adrive.com for an additional online backup of really essential files - they give 50Gb for free on their basic package, although the interface really is basic - www.adrive.com/personal_basic |
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