Online Backup?

[0iD]

Anyone use an online backup company for storing all their personal data?

I know the likes of Drop Box, Google Drive and SkyDrive are available, but I'm talking around 500gb of data. Have seen Crash Plan who seem reasonable at $5 pcm for unlimited storage for one computer, but am interested in alternatives before I make a decision.

[Phage]

Just a thought - Is your connection good enough to support that large a backup on a regular basis ?

[Saracen]

Anyone use an online backup company for storing all their personal data?

I know the likes of Drop Box, Google Drive and SkyDrive are available, but I'm talking around 500gb of data. Have seen Crash Plan who seem reasonable at $5 pcm for unlimited storage for one computer, but am interested in alternatives before I make a decision.

Can't help you. First, no way would I give the likes of Google any form of access to my personal data. Second, I want direct control of it under my own hand, and would not be prepared to put it at the far end of an internet connection. As a backup of a backup for non-sensitive data, maybe, but not for personal stuff.

[0iD]

Just a thought - Is your connection good enough to support that large a backup on a regular basis ?

Yep, nice big unlimited fiber connection.

[0iD]

Can't help you. First, no way would I give the likes of Google any form of access to my personal data. Second, I want direct control of it under my own hand, and would not be prepared to put it at the far end of an internet connection. As a backup of a backup for non-sensitive data, maybe, but not for personal stuff.

None of it is sensitive, just music, photo's etc. Have it backed up at home on NAS but if there's a fire etc.

[Splash]

I'm using Spideroak, great service and fully encrypted (both before backup by me, by SSL in transit and also at the Spideroak end) but it's going to work out a tad expensive if you're looking to hold 500Gb. 100Gb of storage costs me $10 USD/month. If it's just personal stuff then there's always the option of setting up something at a friends/your family, and setup a VPN between yourself and them?

[jim]

Same as Splash, I'm using 100GB of Spideroak. That's primarily because I trust their attitude towards encryption, which is far beyond what most companies promise and even disclose.

For the figures you're talking though, I think Crashplan will wind up being the only logical option.

[melon]

Can't help you. First, no way would I give the likes of Google any form of access to my personal data. Second, I want direct control of it under my own hand, and would not be prepared to put it at the far end of an internet connection. As a backup of a backup for non-sensitive data, maybe, but not for personal stuff.

Your not going to believe this, but I completely agree with u

I have thought it about for some stuff ( projects and personal ) but I dont have that much - maybe under 10 gb

m

[Shad]

I spent a loooong time looking at companies and there are lot of cowboys. Lots of deals that seem really good, lots of companies that are really just resellers, not a lot of transparency going on.

I went with CrashPlan+ Unlimited in the end. I have it running nightly on my backup server and I've got the best part of 1TB of data up there now. Everything's compressed and encrypted. Restoring files is really straight forward and works a treat. Got to say I really think the whole service is great and amazing value for money

[watercooled]

I also agree about SpiderOak's encryption policy being better than most, you can choose your own encryption key to encrypt any data before it leaves your PC, but you can't access it through the web interface and they have no way to recover it for you if you lose it. However, AFAIK they don't fully disclose their source code so that makes it somewhat less trustworthy.

I use it myself for some non-sensitive stuff, but IMO the software still needs work; it's a bit cumbersome to use, especially for more advanced stuff; it writes a ton of verbose log files which contain largely recursive error messages; and it does crash silently sometimes, maxing a CPU core indefinitely until you kill the process, although it does seem better on the latest version.

You could consider that Amazon tape-alternative service if you have a lot of stuff to archive and don't want to access it often, but pay VERY close attention to the costs; IIRC someone was saying they've planned it out so it's fairly cheap until you want to restore a large amount of data, for which the costs are astronomical, but if it's your only backup (which would be the case for a lot of people if they were at the stage they needed to access it) you'd have no choice.

[melon]

I spent a loooong time looking at companies and there are lot of cowboys. Lots of deals that seem really good, lots of companies that are really just resellers, not a lot of transparency going on.

I went with CrashPlan+ Unlimited in the end. I have it running nightly on my backup server and I've got the best part of 1TB of data up there now. Everything's compressed and encrypted. Restoring files is really straight forward and works a treat. Got to say I really think the whole service is great and amazing value for money

Im looking at them too, 10gb would suit me fine for 2 yrs I think.

m

[Agent]

Can't help you. First, no way would I give the likes of Google any form of access to my personal data. Second, I want direct control of it under my own hand, and would not be prepared to put it at the far end of an internet connection. As a backup of a backup for non-sensitive data, maybe, but not for personal stuff.

This is why I use TrueCrypt volumes on Google Drive. I still don't store anything sensitive really, but it helps keep my mind at bay with some of it.

[chrestomanci]

I have been with crashplan for the past 18 months or so without complaints. I have about 100Gb stored with them, mostly digital photos.

The reason I chose them is because of their cross platform support. Unlike many they support Linux, as well as Windows and Mac. Another advantage is that you can backup to other computers or removable devices, as well as the cloud. I have setup all my my home computers to backup to each other via crashplan, so that in case of simple data loss, I can restore much faster from another computer in the home. The cloud component should only be necessary if I loose all my computers due to theft or a fire.

They also have an Android app, but it does not let you backup, only view and download the files you have backed up. It does not backup your Android phone.

[Saracen]

None of it is sensitive, just music, photo's etc. Have it backed up at home on NAS but if there's a fire etc.

Fireproof media safe?

Or alternatively, maybe a couple of old-ish 500-640GB drives and one of those docking stations that take a bare drive. Store one at friend/relative's house, and alternate.

Or, a bit more complex maybe, but :-

1) Break down the data into stuff that doesn't change much. i.e. music, photos, put that onto a drive, or partition, or directory for "archive". And back up that onto an old HD. Store at friends house, or at work, or in the car, etc.

2) Stuff that does change, put onto a different drive/partition/directory, etc. Back up onto, maybe, a flash drive. Alternate, and keep one with you, or in car, garden shed (wrapped up in a bag inside a tupperware box, maybe), etc. etc.

Periodically, update the "archive" level of material to take account of additions.

Obviously, it's your call and maybe the online route works best for you. Maybe it's just my inherent distrust of such services, and my preference for keeping control over such things.

Any backup strategy is always going to be a blend of acceptable risk versus hassle and cost .... or we'd all have an automated, ready-to-go full data centre on hot standby.

[santa claus]

Fireproof media safe? etc......

Much better solutions imho.

[watercooled]

Also try to keep some level of redundancy if you're archiving data to any media you're likely to abandon for a few years; it would be bad if you wanted to restore only to find whatever media has failed. Losing one BD's worth of data out of a dozen is probably better than having a single HDD fail and take everything with it. This also ties in with parity files for instance, if set up, you could lose a couple of BDs and lose nothing data-wise for not much more initial cost. Also avoid poor quality media. OFC, all of this depends on how important the data is and how much you're willing to spend.

It would also be a good idea to check/test media occasionally to make sure it's working and data is intact. But then you have to consider bit rot File systems like ZFS are good for this; traditional file systems won't detect it, and neither will RAID (which should, of course, never be considered a form of backup anyway).