Online Backup

[bruceb58]

Finally decided to go the online backup route instead of constantly cycling hard drives and bringing them to an off-site place to store. I am currently trying out Carbonite and the price is around $50/year.

Anyone else using Carbonite or another online service and care to share their experiences with them and prices?

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Online Backup

WO is listening very closely. I wonder if they give a group rate for multiple computers on a wired familly network?

 

[tx1961whaler]

Re: Online Backup

I might go to one someday. I do run backups on an external USB HD using Norton Ghost every M-W- F. I keep another full backup that I do periodically in a fireproof safe.

 

[SuzukiChopper]

Re: Online Backup

I got my sister hooked up with Carbonite because I'm tired of her coming too close to comfort of losing her business information. I did the free trial thing and it worked well. She has had no problems and I feel better knowing her information is somewhere not in the house (in case the house catches fire!!). Offsite backup is great and for $50 a year it's a no-brainer, just hope they don't close shop all of a sudden and disappear. Only problem I have read about is slow recovery speeds, BUT what would you rather have, slow download speeds or no data?

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Online Backup

I currently back up to a second drive inside my computer and to a network harddrive. My understanding is that Carbonite does not back up network drives for the personal edition.

 

[TiredoleBoy]

Re: Online Backup

What bothers me about these places are they too can be hacked into. I also feel odd that someone at their company may be looking at my personal documents. ( I know they say they won't and you probably get your own personal password, But...)

 

[j_martin]

Re: Online Backup

The problem with a second disk in the computer is that if the computer is damaged, either by a catastrophe(flood, fire), or by vandalism (virus), the backup is also usually affected.

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: Online Backup

I don't like online backup services. Just don't trust them

I have my own web hosting I use for backups. Just make sure they have nightly backups, raid, etc...

But most importantly, External hard drive is a good option for some..
as of now, I have a computer I acquired. Has 3 260 sata drives. Set up mirrored Raid.

So i copy my important files to my network drive. it's copies onto 2 other drive.

 

[SuzukiChopper]

Re: Online Backup

What bothers me about these places are they too can be hacked into. I also feel odd that someone at their company may be looking at my personal documents. ( I know they say they won't and you probably get your own personal password, But...)

With Carbonite, everything that is backed up is encrypted using a passphrase unique to your own computer. Even if they were hacked or an employee wanted to go snooping they wouldn't be able to see anything anyways.

I don't like online backup services. Just don't trust them

I have my own web hosting I use for backups. Just make sure they have nightly backups, raid, etc...

Your web host is the one you shouldn't trust. If it isn't a dedicated server then you're sharing the same computer with other people. Even if it is dedicated and you have a website running on it, more likely that will be compromised then a secure backup service.

 

[madhatter160]

Re: Online Backup

I like mozy. It is similar to Carbonite. I just have it back up everything I care about once a day and call it good.

 

[Nandy]

Re: Online Backup

With Carbonite, everything that is backed up is encrypted using a passphrase unique to your own computer. Even if they were hacked or an employee wanted to go snooping they wouldn't be able to see anything anyways.

There are no hack proof encryption. Back in the day (still today if I wanted) I could hack wep/wap wireless systems and winblows passwords. Both are passphrase based... It is all how bad they want your data and how prolific is the encryption method. Either way, I cant imagine me backing my 240 gb hard drive online for the first time. I bet after that it does a differential backup. I rather have my local hardrives, much faster...

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Online Backup

If you are that paranoid about people deciphering the encryption, you better take all of your money out of any bank account and bury it in your backyard because the threat is really no different.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Online Backup

Either way, I cant imagine me backing my 240 gb hard drive online for the first time. I bet after that it does a differential backup. I rather have my local hardrives, much faster...

It takes a few days but then only updated on changes.

Like I said, with me, I have 2 local backup drives(one inside my computer and one on my network) that get updated automatically every evening with scripts that I wrote. I am more worried about those backups getting stolen if my house was robbed or if my house burnt down.

 

[SuzukiChopper]

Re: Online Backup

There are no hack proof encryption. Back in the day (still today if I wanted) I could hack wep/wap wireless systems and winblows passwords. Both are passphrase based... It is all how bad they want your data and how prolific is the encryption method. Either way, I cant imagine me backing my 240 gb hard drive online for the first time. I bet after that it does a differential backup. I rather have my local hardrives, much faster...

Local hard drive backup + fire = You are screwed
Local hard drive backup + B&E = You are screwed
Local hard drive backup + flood = You are screwed
Local hard drive backup + Tornado/Major storm = You are screwed

There's a reason why any SANE IT department does tape backups and immediately takes them OFF-SITE! Why back something up and leave it in the same place as what you just backed up? That's like making copies of your insurance policies, putting the originals in a folder and then putting the copies in a folder at the other side of the house.

Also, I KNOW that encryption is breakable. If you REALLY want to know how I know, send me a PM. However, for the regular household user, using a service that AT LEAST provides encryption is safer then any other method available.

 

[gstanton]

Re: Online Backup

I would not and will not back up using anything being hawked by Rush or Glen Beck.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Online Backup

I am now looking at nomadisk. Anyone try that service?

One nice thing about it is that you can use it for somewhat of a simplified FTP like service to allow you to share files.

You can also download files directly to your iPhone.

 

[Nandy]

Re: Online Backup

Local hard drive backup + fire = You are screwed
Local hard drive backup + B&E = You are screwed
Local hard drive backup + flood = You are screwed
Local hard drive backup + Tornado/Major storm = You are screwed

There's a reason why any SANE IT department does tape backups and immediately takes them OFF-SITE! Why back something up and leave it in the same place as what you just backed up? That's like making copies of your insurance policies, putting the originals in a folder and then putting the copies in a folder at the other side of the house.

Also, I KNOW that encryption is breakable. If you REALLY want to know how I know, send me a PM. However, for the regular household user, using a service that AT LEAST provides encryption is safer then any other method available.

Well, the paragraph that I quote from you in the earlier post does leads one to believe that you make a statement that because it is encrypted it is safe. Heck, a company employee is more likely to develop the proper tools and techniques to compromise any system as they have access to the source. I dont need you to tell me how but I appreciate the offer. As far as on site storage I agree with you that if you take it to the extreme it is not good to have the backup collocated. However, I dont have anything in my computer that important. Believe me, Im not that worried about my bookmarks... The photos are the only thing that I cant recover and we have a copy located outside of the house (at work, but is not up to date...). Besides, if I have a fire/tornado/flood, etc, hit me I have more things to worry than restoring my pc.
I have backups to get my pc back to the last good configuration that I like. I cant imagine waiting a few days to do a restore in my pc. It could be a great idea to have both backups, one local and one remote, for those that have the need to safeguard valuable data.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Online Backup

The photos are the only thing that I cant recover and we have a copy located outside of the house (at work, but is not up to date...).

Photos, tax returns, my website files, my work files for my consulting(huge amount of data), email(since I have Outlook)....yours is a very simple case so obviously your scenario would not apply to the large number of computer users where losing all backups would be a catastrophe...possibly worse than the fire itself!

The company I work for keeps remote backups for the same reason I want to. Keeping all backups local would be a huge mistake.

 

[SuzukiChopper]

Re: Online Backup

Well, the paragraph that I quote from you in the earlier post does leads one to believe that you make a statement that because it is encrypted it is safe. Heck, a company employee is more likely to develop the proper tools and techniques to compromise any system as they have access to the source. I dont need you to tell me how but I appreciate the offer.

I wasn't offering to tell you how, just the offer that if you want knowledge of how I know what you said to be true, I'd be able to provide some background so it doesn't sound like I'm just tooting a horn. For the average user, that isn't being sought after by someone with a criminal intent, the encryption services provided by Carbonite are worth the $50/year. That was my intent with the post. Sorry it wasn't worded justly.

As for e-mails, and photos. There are numerous options. #1 for e-mail is to use Gmail. You can forward all your addresses to a single Gmail account, add your e-mail addresses as "accounts" and no one will even know you use Gmail. You can still use Outlook BUT everything is still available in case something does happen. Photos can and should be uploaded to a service such as Picasa, Photobucket, etc. Easily recoverable and easily made private if they need to be. Website files I do and always will keep a local copy of but depending on the host, should be safe and sound in their datacenter. Also if you're with a web host that does nightly backups, you can write a simple script and backup your tax returns and business documents at a certain time of day. I did that with a business here and just had the script run every day when they went for lunch. Was always done by the time they got back. Granted it was a small business but using their web host as a backup server was a ton better then the floppy disks they were using, sporadically I might add.

Lots of options available but the remote backup is key. Carbonite just happens to be one I have tried and have no complaints about.... yet.

 

[maryning]

Re: Online Backup

Finally decided to go the online backup route instead of constantly cycling hard drives and bringing them to an off-site place to store. I am currently trying out Carbonite and the price is around $50/year.

Anyone else using Carbonite or another online service and care to share their experiences with them and prices?

I am using ZenOK Online Backup now for some months and I quite happy with it.

You get [antivirus for freeand I upgrade to 150GB space for just about 34 EUR per year.

With the Add-In they provide you can choose the folders you want to automatically backup onto your online-storage. Works like a charm for me ...