Offsite Backup

I've used Carbonite for several years and have been very happy with it. I wouldn't be too worried about timing backups, at least with Carbonite. You specifiy which files to back up, and it backs them up on a single-file basis (there is basically a queue) in the background without taking priority over the other programs that you're running. It adds a small circular icon to each file in a directory that lets you know whether the file is backed up or still in the queue, and you can specify that a particular file should get backed up "as soon as possible" if there's a need. Restoring a file from backup is easy as well. Recommended without reservation. Great peace of mind for $60 per year (the last I checked).

vic,
have you ever needed it?
my son had carbonite and when the need arose, he was SOL.

Thanks Vic, that's really helpful!

Cynthia,

Just curious, why not an external hard drive? What is your thinking?

I need to enter into one of these two options by the end of the summer.

Dave

Marlene - Yes, but not on a large-scale basis. I've restored individual files, and I've had no issues. Maybe I've been lucky. Maybe your son was unlucky on that occasion. Hard to say.

David - I've got an external hard drive as well, which I used previously. I switched because: (1) If your computer and hard drive are stolen, all your files are gone. Same for a fire or other disaster which wipes out both. (2) Cloud storage is more automatic. I don't need to think about it at all.

It's hard to prove whether any online service is absolutely safe, but I've come to understand that there are no absolutes. At the time that I signed up, their security controls sounded safe enough for me, and I'm reasonably careful about those things. But you need to check their site and see if you come to the same conclusion.

If you use Windows, OneDrive is built in. That covers it for me.

Dave:

House burns down. House is robbed. Roof leak. Flood. Hacker. Virus. Lightning strike at the wrong time. Power surge. Any one of a whole lot of other localized things that would wipe out my data.

My son's problem was very large scale...an entire company website :(

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/maintenance/tp/online_backup_services.htm


Here's a 2015 review of the top 36....

Marlene, how did Carbonite fail for your son? Are you saying the backups weren't run frequently enough?

edit: ah, your response above answered my question. I have to type faster next time.

I use BackBlaze which works well with Macs and also supports external hard drives. It took a LONG time for the initial backup, but well worth it. I've successfully used my Backblaze to access files when I was away from home and on a different computer. Only took seconds to locate and download the files. Price is right ($95 either a year or two years, can't recall), and well worth the peace of mind.

** Mary Lee Dereske

This is all new and interesting stuff to me.

Cynthia, I had not thought about fires etc....

Jim, I looked up OneDrive

https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/plans/

Are the prices considered good or cheaper folks?

Began reading Marlene's article. Backblaze is a better deal. I need to get into the rest of the article later.

Dave

lol, Vanessa!
I am sure that none of the companies are fool proof....and it pretty much only matters if it fails for you

Although I know it's good to have an external backup device (ord'd one yesterday!), I've wondered what backup capabilities the "cloud" companies have, just in case they have some sort of conflagration?

I use Flickr as an independent back up for images, separate from external hard drive. No Issues.

Whatever you decide, don't use Dropbox ... here's my thread on the matter

http://pixels.com/showmessages.php?messageid=2303016

Greg, if the cloud service has a disaster, I've still got the original files on my computer and can back them up again by some other means. So although I'd imagine that the services have some sort of backup themselves, it's not a huge concern for me.

Frank,

I'd use Flickr in a heartbeat as a backup for photos.

Problem is as a digital artist and probably for other photographers,
I can not upload all my working images. I have images in layered PSD
form that I need as backup. I need to be able to rework or even
cannibalize my prior work as if from scratch.

Dave

Vic,

In the end only the cockroaches will survive. LOL

Your point is well taken.

Dave

".. I'd imagine that the services have some sort of backup themselves..."

I'm sure they do, Vic. They'd be lacking as a responsible company if they didn't. Just wondering and thinking outloud. :)

Vic,

Hard Drives on a server used to be set up as a RAID. If one disk went the others could back it up restoring
the data on the bad disk. I heard a blurb that something new is being used and I am now outdated.

The cloud storage folks would need two different sites to for a very secure system. They do not owe
us that. We may never know whether our data is stored in two places or not. Considering fire, flood
and other possible calamities on the server farm site.

I agree that if your computer goes, the cloud will be okay. And visa versa. It will be somewhat rare that both
are down and out at the same time.

Dave

I use a POD website that starts with "R" as an online backup.. I can download my images from there.

My primary offsite backup consists of a set of DVDs in a friend's home safe, and a set of flash drives in my bank safety deposit box. The details of how and when data is updated, etc. is complicated enough to be a government project . . . and would bore you to tears as reading material. ;-)

Abbie recently mentioned using Amazon's backup service; I might look into that as a third option.

My husband and I both use Carbonite and have done so for years. Have been able to retrieve back ups with no problem at all.

I just hope the service any of us chooses to use do not have the same brand of server the IRS was using. Seems to be they had lots of multiple, simultaneous failures with those in the past. ;)

Just a a quick thought,,,

This reminds me of planning to be a survivalist. You just can't plan for every contingency - without knowing what's coming your way.
I have actually watched survivalist shows, whereas people have actually spent over $150,000 dollars IN FOOD..... This does not include shelter, which could be a million dollars or more... How would you like to survive the worst experience, only to realize that a may be 3 years before you see the sunlight again... How much food did you put away?..... How about if disaster strikes when you are away from all your preparations?.....

OK, regardless of what backup method you use, it's best to have a backup than none at all.

I Have a Mac. I have 1 dedicated drive with TIME MACHINE doing the backup automatically. I have never had to use it, but it's there...

CARDINAL RULE: I DO NOT EVER save ANY FILES on the computer hard drive. Only the programs that are installed in the computer.

The rationale behind this thinking is that - if the entire computer evaporates into thin air, I only lost the purchased software, which presumably can be re-installed back into a new computer. Most of my software can be re-downloaded from the different places I have purchased it before. Photoshop CC, dozens of Photoshop filters, actions, the list goes on.
Which brings us up to the next section: WRITE DOWN ON PAPER WHAT SOFTWARE YOU HAVE PRESENTLY INSTALLED, to see how much can be re-installed later on...

I have 5 external 1 Terrabyte DRIVES + Google Drive + ICLOUD + DROPBOX..... Overkill - yes...... My Google Account is 1.99 for 100 Gigs of space. So far, this is plenty of cloud space. I can always upgrade to 1 Terrabyte for $9.99 per Terra-byte ( or use my other gmail account an buy another 100 gigs for another $1.99 / month ). I have options galore...

NOW, I keep my FINEART AMERICA PUBLISHED PHOTOS at Google Drive and my External Drives. I Rotate my hard drives....

MY ORIGINAL CAMERA PHOTOS and IMPORTANT FILES are also kept in the 5 EXTERNAL 1 Terra-byte DRIVES. ( $60 dollars each +- )

It's a small challenge to know which files you have worked with in order to keep them backed up properly, but I keep a small piece of paper on my desk to remind me - Excel, Word, Bank, Etc. Organization is the key.

Hard drives NOT BEING USED are kept at the BANK SAFETY DEPOSIT BOX. Once a month I visit the bank and bring home 1 or more, and backup all the files into them. Back they go to the bank within a couple of days. The bank is 2 blocks away, so this is not a problem for me.

The best tip I can give you is that NEVER use your computer hard drive to keep ANY IMPORTANT FILES at all. None. Nada, Zilch. Again, if the computer blows, your biggest worry will be to go buy another one ( that's another conversation $$$$ ). If your PHOTOS get a LOCKOUT VIRUS, your UNCONNECTED sitting at the bank hard drives will not be infected.... ( Google drive might be zapped - because it is CONNECTED to your infected computer.... ). Of course, buy a new computer and re-connect your clean Bank hard drives....

Oh Well, Hope this helps someone out there - Cheers

-- Carlos Diaz

One thing about Carbonite to keep in mind...I had a PC, and converted to an iMac. Carbonite could not retrieve my files to my new iMac, so I lost everything I had uploaded. They told me to go to a friends house that had a PC to download to a disk or whatever...well as a photographer, with a large collection of raw and .jpg files, it took 4 months to transfer my files to Carbonite. So asking a friend to do that would be ridiculous! I had a very fast upload speed when doing it. I told them I was surprised they could not transfer my files to another Carbonite data base to use with my iMac...they were just photo files compatible with both operating systems! Needless to say I don't think much of Carbonite.

Marlene, yes, you are so right about no service being perfect. But it does seem like mammoth projects are prone to more even if it were a backup on auxiliary drives. Sorry your son had such a painful experience, though.

David P, that's interesting - I would assume the problem was more about the compression algorithms than it was about the file types. Language barrier of sorts.

I have more than just images to back up. I have a library of 3D models I've created over the years, textures, all kinds of things.

If that's so, most of those kind of errors could be avoided if Carbonite had a routine that would compress the data in a .zip or .tar or other known format before sending. Seems kind of cheesy if they don't.

@Cynthia - They never gave me a reason why they could not move them...just said they couldn't.

Did they give you any kind of refund David? And Carlos, when you "rotate" do you mean you retire one or more after so many years?

@Vanessa - Nope, they wanted me to start a new subscription with my iMac. I started using 6 terebytes worth of external hard drives.

At present, I keep my backups on several external hard drives at home. I've been thinking of using a service such as carbonite as well. I am also considering a fire proof storage box I could put one of my backup hard drives in as an alternative. Then just take it out periodically and back it up. Not sure what level of redundancy I need as of course that drive could fail as they sometimes do.

Dave Gordon
http://dgportfolio.net

David G,

Such a box would have to be more than fireproof. In a fire the heat would be too much for most external drives. Just a reasonable guess.

Dave

Hello Vanessa;

When I "ROTATE" my hard drives, I mean I physically go to the Bank and bring - 1 or more drives - back home with me. I then leave (1) at home, and take all the rest back to the Bank.
( Bank is only a couple of blocks away )

This unconventional backup method guards against:

(1) LIGHTNING striking my house
(2) FIRE striking my house
(3) LOCKOUT VIRUS striking my computer ( Virus off the internet - where you have to pay a ransom to unlock your photos )
(4) ROBBERY - whereas they take EVERYTHING with them. ( that's why I DON'T keep any IMPORTANT FILES INSIDE THE COMPUTER )

( Unfortunately, this won't do me any good if any of the above hits the bank itself.....)

Yes, I am vulnerable any time all my drives are at home while doing the backups. I try to keep them for no more than a day or two, before I take them back.

The key to my system, is that my expectation is that I will - somehow LOOSE THE ENTIRE COMPUTER - Up in SMOKE.... At that point, I would go to the computer store, buy another computer and would be back on the horse within 1 hour. ( my computer is 5 years old anyway, so replacing it would be a blessing in disguise ).... Go ahead, take the dammed thing....

Of course, my wife might poke a hole in this assumption..... ( What the $#@& do you need a new computer for !!!!!! ) ....

Cheers
:)

>>>> Carlos Diaz

Our office kept their backups on a shelf above the server. When the tornado made a direct hit, all was lost. Backups need to be offsite. Also, a friend used Carbonite for years. Somehow, one entire year was lost and Carbonite had no explanation.

I use Acronis... its disk imaging software. Periodically I make images of everything on my computer...files,folders, programs. operating system, and especially my photography work to a separate hard drive that is hot swappable from my computer. I remove this drive and keep in a different location away from my main computer. When a failure occurs or I need to replace a hard drive i put my drive with the backup images into my computer, load up the software and in 5 minutes have everything loaded back onto the replaced hard drive. Why trust yet another company with all of your personal data when you could do it yourself?

I live in a great condo with good wiring, no smokers around, no tornados in the state generally.

We can have a fire because the building is all wood.

My main concerns are viruses and lightening.

If I buy a 1TB external drive, I can have back up for about $90 for four years. Half price.

All I need to do for my two main worries is unplug the thing after I use it. Just using it every two or three weeks.

Cloud resource are very iffy when you need them and they cost more. To each their own.

Dave

Andy,

TY TY TY.....but which system are you using? The hard drive elsewhere in your house or their cloud services?

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/pc-backup/

Dave

Cynthia, I use Carbonite and have for the past 3 years. I had an out of the blue crash about 1.5 years ago and thankfully got all my archived files back. It took nearly 3 days with my computer (laptop) on 24 hrs a day, but I know if you uograde you can get your files back faster. I have the $59 per year subscription. I'm happy with it. I also have a 1terabyte external hard drive. You have to have something these days. Also, I have a laptop fan that runs whenever I am using my laptop as the issue with the crash was a heat sink issue.

I've used Backblaze for years and am very happy with it. It took a very long time for the original backup to finish. I also have five external drives but one of them was showing signs of failing and another one did fail...I was easily able to get my files off of Backblaze.

@Cynthia
We back up to a dedicated server and to a 10TB Google drive. We also have copies on External Drives.

@Dave
You are misinformed. The majority of U.S. businesses uses some form of cloud storage. If you have a large amount of media you just don't rely on an external hard drive. There is nothing iffy about cloud services. But as you said. To each their own.

Thanks Joy, Peggy, and Aged. I need to research BackBlaze and I do have some cloud space available...

For those that question the value of these services, I can only explain my own viewpoint.

I have two external 1TB backup drives here. And I backup regularly.

When I lived in California, I went through a very strong earthquake (Loma Prieta '89). There is no way that you can guarantee you can grab the important things and get them out of your home in time of an emergency. You have to experience something life threatening to understand this. You think you'll have time, you think nothing will happen. You won't have time and you can't assume any part of your home is indestructible. I know what it's like to wake up one peaceful sunny morning and then later that same day everything you own is gone or damaged.

My artwork is my full time job. My family relies on the income. I want redundancy in my backup system. I want the peace of mind of having an instance of that redundancy offsite.

Rec'd an email this morning letting me know the unit I ord'd has shipped. After reading these posts, it seems that I will need to have an additional one to backup the backup. Good old redundancy. :)

My solution to an inadvertent wipe out of every image I have ever created:

Accept it and start all over from scratch, and do it all better the second time around.

NOT realistic, of course, if what gets wiped out still actively enables you to pay your bills. In that case, ... external hard drive in safe deposit box somewhere, and another external hard drive in your possession which is an exact copy, which you use to update and switch out periodically with the one in the safe deposit box (which also would need updating), .... AND a cloud storage copy of the same data too.

I use my chrome book as an additional drive...it came with 115 gigs and I can buy more...I have it with me when I travel, only weighs a few pounds and I can access whatever I have loaded up to google drive....with the added beauty of using a computer to do lots of other things. My CB was only a few hundred bucks.

@Dave
You are misinformed. The majority of U.S. businesses uses some form of cloud storage. If you have a large amount of media you just don't rely on an external hard drive. There is nothing iffy about cloud services. But as you said. To each their own.

AP,

The Fortune 3000 either do it in house or use the cloud. There are well over 25,000 corporations last I heard. The thing is
I am not incorporated. I have rather shallow pockets. I want savings. I have perhaps 200 GB of data. If that really.

Things can go wrong at any point in any part of any of this. I should not have phrased as 'very iffy", but things can
and do go wrong.

Addition at Pratt and Whitney I was educated by them on the quarterly reporting process. The problems
plaguing the timing of reports. This was affecting the entire US corporate base. It took 6 weeks to get the results together
to report the quarter. So SAP and Oracle were trying to bring those times down. In the mean time PW had 32,000 Cobol programs
that were "brittle" that they depended on. It was a nightmare. Only two years later when the markets crashed did all the CEOs and CFOs
get some cover as if bad reporting was the problem instead of just bad systems. Bad systems the real root of all the problems
would have sounded a lot worse, more endemic of the entire US corporate base. PW storage was under the runway where I worked. But
no one in the computer room had any clue where anything was. Fortunately tax returns and other statements from the 60s, 70s and 80s were
not needed.

I am the more common artist, not a smaller corporation in the top 25,000 US corporations. Most Americans do not need cloud storage.
That though would never stop a good sales campaign from selling far and wide.

If I took photos and did not do any design work, I would use Flickr for free. Since I do a lot of design work and store those designs in layered
PSD files, I want to know more about this. I want a back up where I can restore my data and work on much older files long after any computer
crash or problems.

BTW the smaller corporations in the 25,000 are still doing well into the tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in business very often.

I ride in different company.

Dave

Marlene, I need to look into what Google is offering as well. Not the CB, but Google Drive.

Google is usually an innovator in such things.

Dave

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375123?hl=en

Google is listing 15 GB free.

100 GB $1.99 per month. No yearly plans are available.

I have 122 GB currently in use. How much of that is my data? Much less.
I have no videos as data.

So $1.99/month with Google Drive is probably my best bet.

I need to look deeper into it.

Addition: I looked at my actual data folders. I am using 52.1 GB currently. I can easily cut that does to just under
40 GB. Addition: If I leave off my roses I can get it down in the low 30 MB area. I need headroom, the next plan
jumps to $9.99, $120 per year.

I figure if the computer hardward its self gets fried by lightening or a fire I need to buy a new machine with Windows loaded
So my back up only needs to be the data. Off site is better. $24 per year is very good.


Thought, I wonder if I can aim at just one folder for backup? Anyone know? I could put just one later stage PSD layered file
for every image into one folder, and only those files would be backed up. Cut this down to next to 15GB, not for the free
Google Drive, but for overhead. I want to make a lot of new images. I only need one layered PSD file per image as a restore file.

Dave

I use carbon Copy Cloner (https://bombich.com) and swap out one of my 6TB drives every week-or-two.

Works for me thus far...also have a couple of 5TB's as additional spare BU's.

~Michel Soucy

Remember;

If you get a LOCKOUT VIRUS of any type, your GOOGLE DRIVE, all your photos there will also be locked out..... because it is connected to your computer.

ALSO, MAKE SURE you have a 3 WAY Security System implemented at GOOGLE.

# 1 - User Name
# 2 - PASSWORD
# 3 - LOGIN CODE generated by Google or an APP ( AUTHENTICATOR ) ( Google will either call your phone OR Authenticator APP will generate a new number every time you Login). This is an AWESOME SECURITY PREVENTION METHOD TO USE.

#4) - ALSO, Make sure you generate the 12 BACKUP CODES at GOOGLE SECURITY SETTINGS and hide those in a REALLY GOOD PLACE. They are the backup codes that can be used if your Iphone, IPad, APP are gone. How else are you going to LOGIN? you need a NUMBER. Use one of the 12 provided by Google. You can re-generate these 12 numbers at any time afterwards if you loose them. Make sure you re-generate them BEFORE you lose them...... You can always keep these nnumbers inside your BANK SAFE DEPOSIT BOX for safekeeping.....

WHY ??????

In a nutshell, Google has become very important to individuals such as myself whom depend on their technological advances.

However, if your GOOGLE account gets broken into, all your Google Drive files could be ERASED by the perpetrator and LOCK YOU OUT. CHECK MATE....

IF you catch it just in time, you may be able to sneak in the backdoor with one of the 12 safety numbers ( You did keep them safe - didn't you.... )

PS: Make sure you always check MAIL FORWARDING. A Perpetrator could easily FORWARD all your EMAILS without you knowing about it. Google will NOT notify you. This is a normal event .... If you change anything, the perpetrators are still inside your account. All your EMAILS are still being FORWARDED to them... Just check every once in a while to make sure you don't have an unwanted resident inside your EMAIL.

:)
PS: Further Reading:
http://blog.backupify.com/2012/08/04/5-tips-to-secure-google-drive/

Carlos,

Can I just point the systems at Google Drive to one of my folders?

I dont need OS or email backup. I need one simple single folder to be backed up.

Dave

David;

First, a bit of background for other readers;

Google offers many services attached to it's email services. One of them is Cloud STORAGE. Your EMAIL is stored in the CLOUD. Your Documents are also stored in the same Cloud.

Your "Google Cloud Storage" is in the same exact spot where all your Documents now exist. I assume most folks use G-Mail, Calendar, Documents & their other various Google services ( most are free ). You may STORE ANY FILE, PHOTO, SOFTWARE, Excel/Word/Powerpoint DOCUMENT on the Google Cloud. Of course, this is mostly for storage purposes. (You can't run programs from the Cloud )

Now, having CLOUD STORAGE a new concept which is difficult to comprehend for most of us regular folks. Suffice to say that it is an external computer somewhere in the United States - away from your computer. Under normal conditions, files travel back and forth SLOWLY between them and your computer. 75 gigs may take 1 hour to transfer, whatever.... This is only slow if you are transferring hundreds of files at a time. Individual files transfer fairly quickly ( not instantly).

There are many CLOUD STORAGE spaces out here ( APPLE, GOOGLE, CARBONITE, DROPBOX, ETC )

Assume you want to transfer your entire collection of photos ( let's say 100 gigs or more), This action may take several hours to do. Internet speed is crucial. Once this is done, you would only transfer new photos to the Cloud as needed. Individual files of course transfer much quicker ( not instantly). The BEST USE for ANY CLOUD SERVICE is to use as STORAGE for your important files. Yes you can DOWNLOAD files at any time.... but WHY ?

I routinely use my Google Cloud Storage to keep my FINAL FILES I have uploaded to FINEART AMERICA. My Google Cloud Storage Space used to date: about 40 Gigs.

My ORIGINAL PHOTOS are closer to 250 Gigs, which would probably take a few days to transfer to Google.
At that point, I would have to pay $9.99 / mth for 1 TERRABYTE of clous storage.... In reality, I really don't need ALL of my photos in Google Cloud. Only my finished FINE ART AMERICA uploaded photos get backed up to the Google Cloud. Of course, they also get backed up to my external drives. ( You just can't rely on any one system / methods for backups ). So my hard drives have ALL MY ORIGINAL PHOTOS, PSD FILES, Etc as well as my FINAL PHOTOS. ( Computer Files reproduce like rabbits I tell you )....

DAVE:

It is important to note that GOOGLE CLOUD transfers ARE NOT AUTOMATIC. You must initiate them on your own. This is NOT CARBONITE - which is an automatic backup service from your computer to their Carbonite Cloud services. . This is the MAIN difference between Google Cloud and Carbonite Cloud. You MUST Click, Copy & Paste yourself, then the transfers begins...

I personally DO NOT need CARBONITE - because - I don't keep any important files on my computer. IF my computer BLOWS & I CAN'T GET IT BACK, I would have to buy a new one ( Oh Joy ), reconnect my hard drives and continue. Yes, I use a dedicated drive on my iMAC and I use the backup software which does back up my entire computer ( TIME MACHINE ) anyway. I have not had to use it in 5 years, but it is there - just in case ( I rather buy a new computer at this point )

Now, After adding Google Drive services, you will notice a nifty Google Drive ICON that has been added to your computer. It works exactly like your average hard drive works.
Drag & Drop, Right Click, Etc

Now - when you install a GOOGLE CLOUD DRIVE ICON is added to your computer which is a direct link to your Google Drive on the Cloud... What ?

Using your (FINDER in Mac ) - look up your Google Hard Drive It magically appears on your computer. Then, you simply ADD folders & FILES to it - as you would normally do...

NOTE: You COULD also use your BROWSER to accomplish the same thing and transfer through your browser. Either action(s) accomplish the same thing. Point it to Google, login to yout Google account and click on more services oR simply use the ICON that also magically appeared on the top edge of your MAC computer ( What ?)

This is what makes Google Drive confusing - because you are able to use your Browser or Finder (Mac) ) or the ICON equally ...

At the end of the day, 100 Gigs for $1.99 / month buys a lot of Cloud Storage Space. 1 Terrabyte is nice to have, but in my opinion overkill. Anyway, It may take you a lifetime to transfer 1 Terra-byte of files to Google Cloud Drive !!!!!!

I use Google Cloud Storage Space several dozen times per day - I highly recommend it -

Did you know you can SHARE ANY or ALL or ANY SPECIFIC FOLDER with ANY other Google Accounts. I have hundreds of Douments / PDFs / Client Files I share as I need to....

Google is great ! ( I hope Google gives me free space for the plug ! )

Have I confused everybody yet ????

Cheers

-- Carlos Diaz

Carlos, your method can't be too unconventional since people used to use the same method during the serial backup The tapes would usually fit well enough in a small safety deposit box for most people. Smart.

David, wow. It's hard for me to believe that they were so unaccommodating. If I do settle on a system, I'll steer clear of that company.

Weird, I thought I posted this but I guess I didn't.

Google Drive is too expensive for the amount of space I require. I'm looking at Carbonite, SOS Online Backup and Crashplan. I need unlimited storage, would prefer if I could backup across network drives, and I'd like a comprehensive version history. The three I listed offer all that for a reasonable yearly price.

Time to read reviews, although it's been my experience that people who are satisfied with their software rarely write reviews, but people with bad experiences almost always do, therefore oftentimes software reviews seem negative overall. The prices between the three are similar, it will all come down to features at this point.

I hadn't given this much thought until I read this thread. Now I think I should do something, too. iDrive, SOS, and Crash Plan seem to be rated pretty highly by PC Magazine http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2288745,00.asp iDrive is limited to 1TB, but it apparently has some nice bells and whistles. The link Marlene gave above was also very helpful.

I've been doing a lot of research the past few days. And I had a computer scare earlier today when I thought I might have had a fatal crash (fortunately three reboots solved the problem), which was enough to give me a kick in the pants. I do back up to an external hard drive, but that's not always enough.

I'm thinking I'll try CrashPlan's 30 day free trial in the next few days. It gets the most high ratings from professional reviewers, and while it has some user complaints, it doesn't seem to have as many as some other services. I like the idea that it can make redundant backups to as many as three separate destinations simultaneously (cloud, another computer owned by you or someone you know, and an external hard drive).

I ruled out iDrive due to numerous customer complaints. Also, one professional review said they have a strict no-refunds policy.

Backblaze was the most serious contender, but I don't like the fact that it's own software can't do recoveries. You have to sigh in through a web browser to recover files, which seems kinda circuitous and perhaps less secure. Then they send you a zip file which you have to unzip. I wasn't comfortable with that.

This site had some of the most detailed reviews I found. http://revuezzle.com/home-personal/cloud-backup-reviews/

Thanks for the information, James.

I spent $32 last week on two flash drives. One for the condo and one as a backup to be kept offsite at my parents house.

My back up plan is mainly to have layered PSD files and a few images on these flash drives. These drives are not left in the PC.
So the backup is not subject to viruses or PC crashes or hacking or accidental deletes or lightening. Storing one flash drive offsite
protects against theft and fire.

My flash drives are 32MB. I used something like 5.7 MB immediately. I have 24 MB on each flash drive left.

If my entire computer was stolen or went up in a fire tomorrow, I would have working layered copies of everything.

The cost? $32 for about 4 more years of new material to be added. And if one flash drive fails I have the other.

I will be physically rotating one for the other out of my parents house every couple of months.

Dave

I haven't taken the plunge yet. I'm torn between two services, CrashPlan and SOS. Both have similar features, namely the ability to back up to the cloud and an external drive simultaneously, and store an unlimited number of versions of any and all files indefinitely.

But their differences are where it gets tricky.

1. CrashPlan is $60 per year. SOS is $80 per year.

2. For that price CrashPlan covers one computer only. SOS covers only one PC, but lets you add an unlimited number of mobile devices on the same account.

3. CrashPlan has live telephone support and online chat support, but only for very limited hours. Phone support closes at 3:00pm Pacific time and chat closes at 5:00pm Pacific time, and there is NO service on weekends. SOS has no phone support but 24/7 online chat support.

4. For data recovery on CrashPlan you can download from the web, download through their client software, or for an additional charge you can order your entire backup on a hard drive shipped by FedEx. SOS doesn't offer the hard drive shipping option for large recovery so lengthy downloads are the only option.

5. CrashPlan doesn't say if they have redundancy in their servers. SOS has multiple servers scattered around the country and several more abroad, and they say they make backups of customer's files "on different hardware" every night.

6. CrashPlan gets better professional reviews than SOS, but user reviews of both are mixed.

7. CrashPlan's refund policy lets you cancel anytime and receive a refund of any unused time on your subscription. SOS has a no refund policy after 30 days, but they will consider exceptions on a case by case basis.

Right now I'm leaning towards SOS, but I'm still not sure. I'm open to thoughts, and Cynthia who started this thread will probably be interested, too..

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2013/07/23/the-myth-of-online-backup/

Thought I would bring this up. Really, carbonite and others like it all do this. They make it so you can't backup terabytes worth of data because they would lose money. As someone with about 10 TB worth of photography files backed up, cloud backup isn't really an option. Safety deposit box, good fireproof gun safe, and 3rd copy on my machine serves me well.

Carbonite is meant for the home user with 100 gigs or less to backup really. Get much above that and its not a good product in my experience. Hard drives are cheap anymore in comparison to lost data.

This thread was very informative. I just joined Backblaze. A two year commitment.

From what I am seeing Backblaze is very easy to run automatically in the background. It is unlimited.

If anyone knows, do I need to stop a few exclusions in the backblaze system to add the Windows OS for backup?

I just reinstalled backblaze to remove some of the exclusions. Many of the exclusions were of Windows OS. I was
blocked from changing their status. I can not back up my OS.

Dave

Thomas,

Your article is from June 2013, two years ago. Most of the reviews now claim NO Throttling for almost any of these services.

An article further up the thread here reviewing the services has a link to the author's further diagram comparing services. Throttling
is a thing of the past.

My DSL service is now 30 MB/Sec.

Dave

I'm going with CrashPlan. No throttling, (all backup apps are limited by local memory consumption though, something to keep in mind) They offer unlimited (yes, terabytes if you need it) storage, and you can backup across a home network and backup multiple computers. Also it's a bit spartan, less annoying bells and whistles that I won't use.

I will use this in conjunction with my Amazon Prime Cloud space.

It was between this and SOS for me, but I really need a robust network solution as we have a home network here with 11 machines.

Summer has been busy, but I plan to get this going at the end of this month, and I will report my experiences. I think James Toy bought and is using SOS now and was happy with it last time we emailed.

On Backblaze roughly 55 GB was backed up in moments.

Not being able to backup the OS may reach up and bite me one day.

Dave