Online backup services

[mnp13]

I've been using Mozy for the last five years for my online backup. Recently, however, my backups haven't been running correctly and I just signed on and found out that they have discontinued the unlimited plan - without grandfathering in the old plans - and it would now cost me more than five hundred dollars a year to keep using them.

NOT happening.

Does anyone use online backup? What company and what are the limits and costs? I currently have an almost full 1.5 TB drive, so backing up to DVD's would be a major PITA and I don't have anyplace to store the DVD's anyway.

Input would be greatly appreciated. I had a drive go bad a few years ago, and have never been able to recover those files, I like the peace of mind of off site backup, but not at $500 a year. I could just do redundant drives for that price!

 

[Rolf]

I've been using Carbonite now for two years. Currently it's running $60.00 per year and unlimited. I've had to use it once and was very satisfied. Be aware.... the initial backup can take days to complete. After that it's transparent.

Good Luck!

 

[TomP]

Sounds like a gotcha. If you are talking about on line backup for pics, then I can not understand why anyone would do that, even if it was free. data files make sense, but pics? No way.

 

[Gordo]

Hi Michelle!

I don't have online backup, but am interested in responses to your question.

I also lost images to a drive failure years ago... I failed to make backups and the drive died. Don't want that to happen again.

I currently use the "2 computers, 2 usb hard-drives" method, and it's a bit laborious. But, drive prices are relatively cheap. So I use the 2 usb hard-drives as swappables, and keep one at another location. The big problem is to remember to do the backup to all of the drives and then swap one and backup again to the swapped drive.

So maybe you can use 2 usb hard-drives until you get the online storage figured out? Store one with family/ friend or safe deposit box?

ETA... as ISPs start with more bandwidth restrictions/ additional charges, the cost of online storage (among other things) is going to keep increasing? Maybe time to not look at online storage options?

 

[vulturetec]

I also have Mozy for lots of smaller files, but there's no way I could make it work for image files with my dsl connection (a lot of my final .jpgs are stored on Smugmug so I have that as a last-resort). I'd used Mozy and Carbonite before; Mozy won because I got a terrific deal - but when it expires I'll probably go back to Carbonite (unless they cap their storage too).

If you go the HD route always...always make two backups. I've said it a few times before, but, when I built my machine I put in two removable drive racks (mine are by Vantec). Normally one has my daily growing stockpile of images, the other is used for something else.

On a regular basis (immediately after I shoot something large or important, or at least monthly) I put a backup drive in the second drive rack and run a backup of all my new image files. On a less-regular basis I do the same thing on a second back-up drive that is (ideally) stored at another location.

Having two removable-drive racks gives me the abilty to dupe the drives if I want to, but more importantly I can quickly pull my imaging drive out and take it with me. Normally I do that when we have bad storms, but in the past I've yanked it to be carried with my other imaging drives when we've had threat of evacuations for hurricanes or fires.

USB or eSATA drives are cheap and fairly reliable (read the Newegg reviews for hints there), but the eSATA/USB drive adapters that let you simply drop bare drives into them like flash-cards aren't a bad idea either.

Yet another option is something like a Drobo box with a couple of decent HDs in it. You can run automatic backups to it using any number of programs for the major computer platforms. An off-site backup should still be made in case of fire/theft/flood/etc.

Bottom line: with 2TB drives as low as $70 on-sale, there's no excuse for a decent localized backup plan these days.

 

[euua]

I would just invest in good HDD and store them out of your house. You can also look into dropbox service and even heck look into gmail. I back up some photos when I need them with gmail - just email them or save as draft in your mailbox. with unlimited space it not a problem.

 

[TomP]

I would just invest in good HDD and store them out of your house. You can also look into dropbox service and even heck look into gmail. I back up some photos when I need them with gmail - just email them or save as draft in your mailbox. with unlimited space it not a problem.

How do you do email 1000s of RAW images

 

[BobC]

I used Mozy and Carbonite, plus an external hard drive, the idea being that the "cloud" service would take care of me if I forgot to do the local backup or if there was something like fire or lightning strike or theft. I dropped Mozy this past winter when they changed their pricing plan. I've added Backblaze but it's going to take a long time to get my files backed up.

My personal and business files don't amount to many gigabytes, but I have a lot of photos, a large percentage of which were taken for my bicycle and dog clubs so it'd be more than a personal inconvenience if the files were lost. Tonight I need to look for some files from 2005 showing a certain dog.

I have almost 1 TB on Carbonite.

 

[Aqualung]

Another one to evaluate is Acronis online backup...I also do the external drive (have 3 to 4 going) along w/ online backup. It's never a case of if a drive will fail, it's when

 

[sambo.]

one the National Broadband Network hits the town i live in, i'll be looking to get myself two, giant network storage devices.

one will be my main-use server, the other will be at a remote location and just mirror the main NAS device. CD backups will be kept at a third location.

not a cheap route, but should be cheaper than paying for online backup of several TB of images.

 

[mnp13]

Sounds like a gotcha. If you are talking about on line backup for pics, then I can not understand why anyone would do that, even if it was free. data files make sense, but pics? No way.

I guess it all depends on your photos. I shoot a dog trial every year and have orders after each trial that go back to the first one. The photos I lost from that drive failure include photos of my grandfather, completely irreplaceable photos.

I have about 1.5 tb to back up now and the number is only growing. I've only had my 700 for a few months and have close to 20,000 on it already. It adds up.

 

[BobC]

>> I guess it all depends on your photos. I shoot a dog trial every year and have orders after each trial that go back to the first one. <<

Exactly. I've just received a request for some photos I shot at a dog club event in 2005. The images will be treasured by the person who's made the request. Fortunately I've got that material on my hard drive, but I rest better knowing those photos are being automatically backed up to an offsite service.

 

[TomP]

I shoot RAW files, that would be days and days of of uploading, even with my DSL. I would rather put everything on many drives, and store at least one off site. Who is to say that once they are one the net, that they could not be stolen, maybe not likely, buy one thing is for sure, you no longer have total control of your images. I don't care how safe they claim it is, the pics are no longer in your possession.

 

[mnp13]

I shoot RAW files, that would be days and days of of uploading, even with my DSL. I would rather put everything on many drives, and store at least one off site. Who is to say that once they are one the net, that they could not be stolen, maybe not likely, buy one thing is for sure, you no longer have total control of your images. I don't care how safe they claim it is, the pics are no longer in your possession.

Mozy was encrypted, and if you set your own encryption key and lost it they would not be able to give any of your data back to you.

I also shoot RAW, and it took nearly six months to get my backup done the first time.

 

[TomP]

Wasn't Sony encrypted also. :biggrin:

 

[mnp13]

lol yes.

However, the odds of hackers going after my photos of the 2005 Dog Sports Open are rather minute, to the point of being close to infinite.