I have around 200 GB of important data that I like to keep backed up. The problem is that my internet connection is too slow to use any type of off-site automatic backup, so here is what I do.
Every so often, I take 2 200 GB external hard drives and copy everything to them. I then take one hard drive to my office and store it there, and keep the other at home. Both hard drives are encrypted to prevent office snoops from hooking one or the other up and checking out the contents. For files that change frequently, I use Foldershare and have them replicated over 3 computers. The only hole in my loop are frequently modified files being stored off-site, something I'm currently trying to work on (Although for those who have Foldershare installed on a work computer, that completes the loop).
It is manual, which is annoying, but it avoids having to wait several weeks for full protection, is easily updatable, and lets me keep a copy of my files at work within easy reach if I, say, want to find a specific MP3 to play at the beginning of a class.
__________________ Dr. Jon Westfall, MCSE, MS-MVP
Executive Editor - Android Thoughts
News Editor - Windows Phone Thoughts
My main issue with online backup solutions is privacy and security, you can never be 100% sure your data wont be compromised and there is also the possibility of the company disappearing.
Regarding privacy and security, I can understand why it's a concern for some people. For myself, my only truly private information is inside FlexWallet, which has its own 256 bit encryption - so uploading that file isn't much of a concern. In terms of the companies that offer back up service, they all have quite strict privacy policies - it's not like any employee can snoop in your files. And in fact, both Carbonite and Mozy have encryption keys - I know in the case of Carbonite, only the CEO has the authority to access customer files, and I think even then only in the case of a subpoena.
In terms of the company disappearing, that shouldn't be a problem if you're only using them for backup. None of these services are designed to be a point of storage for UNIQUE content...as in content that only exists there. If the company were to shut down, you'll just lose your off-site backup, not the original files.
Quote:
Originally Posted by efjay
I prefer a local backup to an external drive and am now looking at Live Mesh for remote file access.
Live Mesh is an interesting tool, but it's not smart enough to understand when two PCs are on the same LAN - meaning it will sync the file at your Internet upload speed and not your LAN speed. Hopefully that's something they'll fix in the future. The 5 GB file limit also makes it pretty much useless for me.
__________________ Want to contact me personally? Use this. Want to read my personal blog? Check it out. Want to follow me on Twitter? Here you go.
I was actually considering going out and dropping the cash on one of those fancy Windows Home Servers just to have something automatic that I don't have to fiddle with all the time.
That's the other part of the equation - having a WHS means you'll get daily complete backups of your PCs, which is vital for getting back up and running quickly. Hard drive fails? Drop in a new one, restore from the latest daily backup - boom, you're back in business. Mozy doesn't provide a solution in that case.
WHS is great, and it does a lot, but if you ONLY want the daily backup, pick up Acronis TrueImage instead.
__________________ Want to contact me personally? Use this. Want to read my personal blog? Check it out. Want to follow me on Twitter? Here you go.
Their backup solution was to use the Internet to keep all of their files on both computers no matter where they were in the world. The flaw in that strategy (actually, there are several) came when they were both home at the same time. They went out to dinner and someone broke into their apartment and stole both computers. Oops!
Yeah, that's the perfect reason to have off-site backup. A lot of people think it's ok to back up to an external drive sitting right next to their computer, but if there's a fire/flood/thief, it's not like your external hard drive is going to be spared.
__________________ Want to contact me personally? Use this. Want to read my personal blog? Check it out. Want to follow me on Twitter? Here you go.
I had Carbonite for 2-3 months befrore I tracked it down as the source of a problem I was having with a number of apps. Windows OneCare backups to USB would fail with Carbonite service running claiming inadequate disk space, and Excel would occasionally throw an "out of disk space in the temp folder" error. Uninstalling Carbonite fixed it. I contacted them about it and they knew nothing about it and insisted it wasn't their software.
I finally fought enough to get a refund for the balance of my prepaid year and installed Mozy. That was back in April or May and haven't had an issue since.
Nothing beats Windows Home Server for backups in my opinion.
As the French said to King Arthur in Monty Python's The Holy Grail, "We already got one!"
I have a WHS, and it's great, but unless you have yours outside your home/office, fire/floor/theft will wipe all your data out. Off site is the only way to keep your data safe.
__________________ Want to contact me personally? Use this. Want to read my personal blog? Check it out. Want to follow me on Twitter? Here you go.
Mozzy isn't all it's cracked up to be, there are so many technical issues and if you want to restore something they send you an un encrypted zip file ( how safe is that?)
Hmm. Was this a long time ago? I tried a restore just yesterday, and it was as simple as going into My Computer, browsing to the Mozy drive, finding the file I wanted, and clicking restore. Sending an unencrypted ZIP file is definitely not the normal way of doing things..
__________________ Want to contact me personally? Use this. Want to read my personal blog? Check it out. Want to follow me on Twitter? Here you go.
Hey Jason, I would be interested to know where your WHS server fits into all of this. Are you backing up to Mozy from there? Or on your individual workstations?
My Windows Home Server keeps the images of my systems safe - if I have a hard drive failure or catastrophic Windows crash, I can restore from the latest daily backup. I'm running Mozy off my Windows Media Center computer (which is really just a computer running Vista Ultimate, but I use it to watch TV off of). It has two 400 GB drives, which gives me enough storage to back up everything I need. Since I use FolderShare to push my files to this computer, it has the same photos and documents as my other computers do. It also has the master copy of my music collection and video collection. Lastly, it has my software collection as well. Music, videos and software are kept in sync with the WHS using SyncBackSE. There are some things on my WHS that I don't back up using Mozy: my public drive, my Acronis TrueImage master images, etc.
Basically, I push/pull everything I want to back up to this one computer, and Mozy does it's job from there.
__________________ Want to contact me personally? Use this. Want to read my personal blog? Check it out. Want to follow me on Twitter? Here you go.
I had Carbonite for 2-3 months befrore I tracked it down as the source of a problem I was having with a number of apps.
Yeah, I forgot to mention that I had a series of problems with Carbonite chewing up 90% of my dual-core CPU cycles, and I spent a month working with their tech support before I just gave up.
I think Carbonite is a tad shoddy, but it's easier for n00b computer users. I think Mozy is a better product overall, but it's a bit more complex.
__________________ Want to contact me personally? Use this. Want to read my personal blog? Check it out. Want to follow me on Twitter? Here you go.
Linear Mode
LinkBacks (?)
