On line backup services

[Grumpy John]

After having some problems with my external USB HDD which is I use exclusively for backing my program files as well as data files I've been considering using an on line service.
Does anyone here use such a servce or can relate any information regarding costs, reliability etc. No point paying for a backup service if they're not going to be around if/when you need them to recover files if disaster strikes your HDD.

[munruben]

There are many online cloud storage sites available to back up your files etc. Price varies depending on what you want.. Here is a site that gives you some idea of price (http://www.justcloud.com/plans-and-pricing)
Bear in mind that your provider charges you for your download limit per month and uploads are also part of your allowance. If you exceed your limit allowance for the month, you may get charged for it or at least the internet speed will be limited to dial up speed which is not really suitable for uploading large files..
Also remember you are using your download allowance every time you go online to access these files. It is a good idea to store important files this way I guess as in theory, they should always be intact and available to the user.

[Master Splinter]

Megaupload? (http://www.megaupload.com/)

Oh, errrr ummm maybe not....

I believe the old 'passworded zip file named as (sexy celebrities name) + (physically impossible sex act)' will still provide free storage on thousands of P2P connected computers, though!

[jcostab]

I love online backup solutions, and use them for myself and many of my customers, but whether it's a viable solution for you, and if so which service, depends on a few things:

1/ How much data (in GB) do you need to backup?
2/ What sort of internet connection do you have available? (both speed and amount of data you can upload/download per month)
3/ How computer "savvy" are you?

[ian]

Another alternative is to get TWO identical USB external drives

Do a complete backup to one and then take it to someone you know well and leave it there.
Then do a second backup to the drive at your place, with an incremental b/u everyy day/week.
Swap the drives over once per month or so.

It's rather pointless keeping the backup disk beside the computer -- should you have a fire or other disaster event you will lose both the computer and the backup.

[Scott]

Try Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) (http://aws.amazon.com/s3/).

[Grumpy John]

Thanks for the answers, most were helpful :D.


I love online backup solutions, and use them for myself and many of my customers, but whether it's a viable solution for you, and if so which service, depends on a few things:

1/ How much data (in GB) do you need to backup?
2/ What sort of internet connection do you have available? (both speed and amount of data you can upload/download per month)
3/ How computer "savvy" are you?

Point #2 is something I hadn't considered. Whilst the speed is ok, I'm on a 60G/Month plan and the initial backup will be in the vicinity of 700G. After 60G my connection slows to dialup speed, not much good when you have to backup 700G. Also with the amount of photo editing I do incremental backups could possibly exceed 60G/Mth.


Another alternative is to get TWO identical USB external drives

Do a complete backup to one and then take it to someone you know well and leave it there.
Then do a second backup to the drive at your place, with an incremental b/u everyy day/week.
Swap the drives over once per month or so.

It's rather pointless keeping the backup disk beside the computer -- should you have a fire or other disaster event you will lose both the computer and the backup.

This sounds like the plan I will go for, you can get 2Tb external USB hard drives for well under $200 these days.

[Chris Parks]

They aren't popular in Oz due to us having data limits and slow speeds. OS and you have no data limits as a rule and speeds we haven't even thought about.

[RedShirtGuy]

A late thought about the online services...besides the initial upload of everything, some might offer syncing that only uploads changed files (or the changed parts and merge them) which would save a whole bunch of traffic from your ISP's down/up limits.

[Grumpy John]

The problems with my external HDD seemed to go away for a while. However it's playing up again so I stopped off at Officeworks on the way home and bought a 3Tb external HDD for $159. I've got two drives to back up C: drive with system and application files, E: drive containing data files, documents, photos, music etc. total of about 700Gb ATM.