online backup

daztrouk

daztrouk

daztrouk

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Joined
24 Dec 2005
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811
Location
London
I've been looking into this today, as i recently had an issue with a HDD failing. I tried Mozy, who seemed ok, same with carbonite, both on a trial period. Who are you using, and what do you think of the service, and can you recommend any other companies who provide this solution?
 
Have you tried bullguard backup does local and online backup comes with 5gb when you but the software and you can buy more cheap enough.

go try the trial
 
Are you specifically looking into offsite backup? If not, I'd just buy an external drive and back up to that. Faster, cheaper (per gigabyte and bandwidth if these apply) and more convenient.
 
I've used Mozy for years. Never had a problem with them. Only issue is it sometimes doesn't max my connection out when I'm downloading restores but they still come down plenty fast enough. I find the web restore function VERY useful. If I forget to bring any files with me or I fancy showing someone any photos I've taken then it only takes a few clicks and they're downloading.

http://www.idrive.com/ is another one to look at as well as carbonite which you've already tried.
 
theheyes said:
Are you specifically looking into offsite backup? If not, I'd just buy an external drive and back up to that. Faster, cheaper (per gigabyte and bandwidth if these apply) and more convenient.
Click to expand...

Online backup is useful for so many reason:

No lugging around a backup drive if you use a laptop. (Yes there are wireless alternatives, but I change location very often between home, uni and campus, so if you're always on the move physical backups can very quickly fall behind)
Can set it to backup as often as you like, automatically, so do not need to remember to do anything.
Can restore files from any location.
Safe from theft/fire/natural disasters.
Keeps a copy of different versions of files so they can be rolled back.
Private encryption key so your files stay private.

But then there are disadvantages too...

Subscription service so you're always paying for it.
Then the main criticism - limited by your network speed. Uploading large files initially can take ages. But once that's completed incremental backups only take seconds so I don't find it a problem.
As well as that recovering quickly from a disaster can take a while if your download speed is slow.


So it's very much a personal choice really, there are reasons for and against. I personally think it's a very useful service!
 
theheyes said:
Are you specifically looking into offsite backup? If not, I'd just buy an external drive and back up to that. Faster, cheaper (per gigabyte and bandwidth if these apply) and more convenient.
Click to expand...


Matthew mentioned a lot of the points, but the main one to me is incase of fire/theft. I have a 1TB F1 as an external backup, but that always stays in my room, so if anything was to happen to my room, that would be all my data gone.

think i'll go with Mozy, didn't know it allows you to restore from different locations, i thought it was locked to the PC,nice.
 
Oh yeah don't get me wrong, offsite backup is a good thing, just with you specifically mentioning a disk failure and not a fire or flood worry made me query if an online backup service was what you needed. :)
 
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