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82 Comments
- Antialias, on 11/15/2009, -2/+14A few of them on the list WERE free(up to 2gb). You aren't going to find a free unlimited online backup. At least not one that you can rely on.
- tewlz, on 11/16/2009, -1/+12you want free, huh? They're gonna give it away for free to you and pay for servers and infrastructure. Give your head a shake.
- Sheethappens, on 11/16/2009, -3/+14Sorry but "little reason" to backup to the cloud is a load of *****! First off, you are trusting someone else's machinery not under your control and about which you know nothing. Secondly, you are hoping a packet sniffer hasnt been sicked onto your IP address. Third, you are hoping the employees at "the cloud", none of whom owe you any allegiance, are trustworthy and dont sell your data online or otherwise. Fourth you are hoping that no-one hacks "the cloud" where your backup goes. The list goes on....
So what is the alternative? Have your data backed up to an external device you can carry home with you and have a second device attached to take that night's backup onto that device. Swap them over next morning so that you always have an up to date backup as from yesterday on hand that you take home with you in case of disaster.
Wasnt there already a case somewhere in or close to New York city not that long back where a mobile phone company's cloud dissipated and the subscribers lost all their backed up data already?
Dont trust the cloud with anything you dont want in public. The cloud leaks like a sieve! - Flagg3, on 11/16/2009, -1/+9So...
You live in a house that is immune to fire and or other natural disasters?
If you have any data that is absolutely irreplaceable, you should always have a copy stored off-site. (Many people would put family photo's and video in this category)
Whether you do it via the internet or with physical media, it's the only sure way to protect your data from complete loss in case of disaster. - sourceholder, on 11/15/2009, -2/+10All I need now is some data worth backing up :D
- abdullahishtiaq, on 11/15/2009, -8/+15nice work buttttt i want a list of FREE online backup tools
- rm249, on 11/16/2009, -0/+6Dropbox + All my school assignments = Win
- Finsternis, on 11/16/2009, -0/+5I don't know about the others, but mozy.com data is encrypted before it leaves your machine, in transit, and while on their servers. If you don't trust them, then you have the option to provide your own key. Of course, then they can't decrypt it for you if you lose the key.
- trejrco, on 11/16/2009, -0/+4Individual file-size limits, and the amount of administrative burden of doing that for Gigabytes of data / thousands of files - and sync'ing as things change ... sorry, not the answer for general purpose (or general populace) use.
(I have done this several times for individual files, but not as my primary backup ... now if GDrive ever happens "for real" (drag 'n' drop, no file size limit, tools to automatically backup (or simple scripts to do so :) ) then I am in ... ) - Protuhj, on 11/16/2009, -0/+3Check out GmailFS -- it uses your gmail account like a file system, similar to what spworm does, but it mounts a drive in windows so you can just store it to your email that way.
- skeptictank, on 11/16/2009, -0/+3That's OK, I'll just keep a couple of eSata drives and Acronis. The upload speeds around here are just too slow, even for differentials.
- WauloK, on 11/16/2009, -1/+4Also not unlimited:
Microsoft's Live Mesh
Microsoft's Skydrive
But have free options. - brucealmighty, on 11/16/2009, -0/+3My choice is just buy another HD of the same size and clone a copy of your C: drive periodically. Overnight is more than enough time to do a full clone copy. Keep the clone in a safe location away from your PC. HDs are cheap these days and this way the data never leaves your hands and there are no monthly charges.
- sturgisrally, on 11/16/2009, -1/+4I do not trust online storages
- monkeyboyhero, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2What about SugarSync? I've been using that for ages, it's great!
Also, Dropbox by their own admission isn't a backup service- it's a syncing service. You can use it for backups, but that's not really what it's designed for - diggan8, on 11/16/2009, -1/+3You'll not make a very good system admin with that kind of attitude, mister.
- Protuhj, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2it versions files too =)
- diggan8, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2I use iDrive on my WHS box. Most other companies treat a WHS license like a full blown enterprise license, due to the word 'Server'.. ::cough Mozy cough::
- iziizi, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2I use dropbox (free) and livedrive (www.livedrive.com)
- Zoshchenko, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2I agree with some of the other comments that these services (except DropBox) are for lazy people who want their stuff backed up without any effort of their part. Mozy doesn't work very well and Carbonite is awfully slow. I like DropBox, but mainly for moving files from one machine to another without having to transport a drive. Seems to work great, but too expensive for the paid version.
My backups are on an external disk, and I think I'm going to continue doing it that way.. - hater2win, on 11/15/2009, -1/+3Just tell time machine to backup only the important stuff, then you don't have to worry.
- Antialias, on 11/15/2009, -1/+3I currently use Jungle Disk backing up to Amazon S3. It's a bit expensive(currently backing up around 90 GB from 3 different family computers comes to around $17 a month) and I am considering jumping to Carbonite for the "unlimited" backup fixed rate though I would have to pay their yearly fee for each separate computer I'm backing up rather than having a single account.
I was thinking about doing Time machine backups to a central box then just have a single Carbonite account backup from there. Only issue is then the Time machine backups contain the entire HD of each computer when I only want the irreplaceable things sent to the online backup. Anyone have a good system for backing up multiple systems to a online service? - bruceree88, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2external drives are the way to go.
- hanexar, on 11/16/2009, -1/+3Dropbox is free up to 2gb
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTI5MjE2NDA5
use this link to help me max out my storage :D - mikelanghorst, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2I've only had one internal drive failure, which I didn't have anything important on. But I've had 3 external drives fail. For that reason and the whole off-site thing, Mozy is worth it for me.
- centran, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2This is the digital age! It is all about giving up your rights to your information.
But seriously, the only way to do this would be if you have two locations. Then you can backup to the other location through an encrypted channel like scp.
Having an external device is feasible but you have to rely on a human. Even if that works then theft of data is still a concern. I believe there was a case with a big company getting their backups stolen because they did tape backups and someone jacked the taps on their way to storage. - spworm, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2You do realize there's enough porn out there, that you never need to backup or keep it right?
- abdullahishtiaq, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2yeah
thanks for the info :) - skcolb, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2I'm surprised BackBlaze isn't on here. They had a cool story about their custom storage servers on Digg a while ago, and generally seemed to have their act together.
- Finsternis, on 11/16/2009, -1/+3Dude - There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Why would someone give you free service? Storage and bandwidth cost money.
- trejrco, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2@spworm - contrary to popular misconception (and Broadway songs notwithstanding), the Internet is for far more than porn :).
- bobgrant, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2Actually, all 5 tools are almost identical : )
- Finsternis, on 11/16/2009, -0/+2Then when your house burns down you lose both copies. For real backups, you have to keep a set offsite. People who think "I'll just get a cheap drive and back up to that" often end up in tears.
- bruceree88, on 11/17/2009, -0/+1lol...true
- Finsternis, on 11/18/2009, -0/+1You should tell your small business to use Linux, not MS crap, and save a ***** of money.
- Protuhj, on 11/17/2009, -0/+1@Cryoniq -- yea I should have mentioned that, it was originally written for Linux I believe and then ported to Windows.
- Finsternis, on 11/18/2009, -0/+1I don't care how long you've been "in the biz" (which is less time than me, BTW, and I work on *real* computers, not PCs). But I'm glad you like my suggestion. Of course, you said you used external drives because upload speeds are too slow, now you backup online. Which is it?
- mikejones1983, on 11/17/2009, -0/+1One they didn't list that I like is KeepVault; I've been running it on my Win7 box and it works great. Continuous real-time backup and It's less expensive and faster than Mozy. Figured they deserve a mention: http://www.keepvault.com
- bbqribs, on 11/16/2009, -0/+1Ugh. Mozy. Mozy sucks more than anything that has ever sucked before, at least on the Mac side. You basically pay them to be a guinea pig for their beta versions, and good luck actually getting large amounts of data to ever back up successfully since they rate limit uploads. Their 'tech support' folks will either never respond or will jack you around asking for log files. Sometimes when they do respond, it's very obvious that they haven't read the issue and will tell you to "go to c:/program files/mozy..." indicating that they have no idea what they're supporting.
Crashplan seems decent, and there's also Backblaze which has actually been responsive to support inquiries and seem like they have Mac-fu. - Cryoniq, on 11/17/2009, -0/+1Mounts as a path in GNU/Linux and Mac as well and more OS platforms.
- RyomaNagare, on 11/20/2009, -0/+1It saved my ass, just the other day.
- astrotrain, on 11/16/2009, -0/+1I agree 100% with Sheethappens... once you send up your data, you don't know what is happening to it on the other end. All you see is the pretty eye-candy GUI saying your backup was complete. While Harry Smith on the other end has access to it, and can do what they want with it without you knowing about it.
So your photos, documents, financial data, etc are now sitting on a server who knows where, and for anyone who has access to see it.
Sheethappens has thr right idea, keep it local, external hdisk connected to your PC. Your data is safe with you, and your backups get done faster.
Another thing to remember with online storage its going to take a while to ship that data up stream (no matter who your signed up with). So a standard backup of 10 GB to a local drive could take 15 mins, may take a few hours (providing no network issues) to the backup server.
And even if they do incrementals that is still going to take a bit to ship up the data.
Keep it local, its more secure, faster, and cheaper to go. - Sheethappens, on 11/16/2009, -0/+1For small business - and by small I mean so small that they only require one Small Business Server from MS or possibly not even that - what you say works. I have heavy industry customers and some are so small that they only have 6 computers, 1 of which is a file server only. They dont need to pay for Small Business Server because there is absolutely no call for any of the things it provides, as their business. When I first came there (because no-one in the area had any idea how to hook the satellite dish they use for Internet connectivity so they could use it and no computer was networked), they had no backup and their heavy machinery often blew fuses around the place they told me. I immediately insisted on True Image, put an external HD in and put True Image on every machine and back them all up over the network to the "server", including the "server" itself which only has financial files on it they need to get from any machine. They didnt want backups but I put the idea to them by asking "So how does it affect business if the server burned out?" and they were horrified. They wouldnt go for a copy of the backup HD to another HD to take home overnight so I insisted on putting the accounting data onto a USB flash drive at least, to take home nightly and they did. Time goes by and the office manager is using her machine when BANG the heavy machinery blew the heavy duty fuses again (BTW I had said they needed UPSs and they wouldnt cough up for it) and when they replaced the fuses and got power back, the office manager's machine was wiped. I appear there and put the data back as at the last backup and they had lost nothing except productivity on that machine. The plant manager comes up to me, arms crossed and annoyed but slightly happy that all data was back and says to me that there had been a lot of lost productivity with that machine due to all this so once more, I explained that a UPS was like a battery in a laptop - the power goes down and the machine keeps running long enough to shut the computer down even if you only buy el cheapo UPS devices. Immediately, I was ordered to put them in on all machines and no problems have existed since.
The point to this story? The data they think is the most important definitely DOES get backed up at the end of the day to a flash drive and taken home and they lose nothing at all if any machine burns out but they will NOT listen about the possibility of the place burning down taking all machines with it. You can know everything you need to know to help companies do what is right. You can explain in such a way that even a 10 year old will know what you mean. You can NOT fight the boss of the place, though. It isnt as if they cant afford to take the data home with extra backup drives. It is just that they dont like the idea of doing what is right because they are - to put this truthfully - too lazy to do it.
So, would I tell them to backup to the cloud? No. I wont bother going over what I think of that idea again but in this company's case point out that their satellite communication is often so bad that it is around dial up speed and sometimes just drops right off for a few minutes and comes back again. It would take longer than overnight to get their data there if it could be done at all.
I cannot find one reason for any business to trust their data to someone they dont really know and that is really the main point. There are lots of others. - esc27, on 11/16/2009, -0/+1Carbonite has the right security features (encryption with the option to manage your own key,) but their Terms of Use are unacceptable. As I read it, they can rewrite the entire document at any given time without giving any notice to customers and you automatically agree to it the moment you or your computer uses their services (which happens as soon as their software auto backs up some of your data.)
Call me paranoid, but I'm not relying on anyone to backup my data unless there is a viable guarantee my backups work and changes to the ToS require advanced email notification. - secrity, on 11/16/2009, -0/+1Iron Mountain transports and stores our backup tapes -- the tapes are encrypted plus the databases are encrypted. We don't store any tapes on-site; Iron Mountain can provide any tapes we need in a few hours.
Our databases on UNIX servers use SAN storage; the databases are backed up to tape nightly, plus the SAN is mirrored to our disaster recovery. Some of the databases are also mirrored realtime to our disaster recovery datacenter.
All of the disk storage on our VMware Red Hat servers is on the SAN, and the servers are backed up on tape (full weekly, incremental daily). The Red Hat servers don't store any data and they could be rebuilt from scratch with little trouble -- I keep copies of config and and other files that would be nice to have on my workstation. I think that the app people do the same. My workstation is offsite from the datacenter. - Y2kFirehawk, on 11/16/2009, -0/+1Cobian Backup + Dreamhost = Cheap Cloud Backup!
- giyad, on 11/16/2009, -0/+1Well it doesn't have to be free, i just want something economical... I'd like to be able to pay for the space I'm using as it equates to actual retail HDD costs. A 2TB drive costs around $300, I wouldn't mind paying $300 (not per year, not per month, just $300) and have everything stored on a server.
Obviously data synchronization takes up bandwidth, so they'd have to figure out a way to bring down their costs for that, but I don't know, maybe have a user pay a yearly $10 fee would be enough.
All im saying is there has to be a better way to solve this than the current business models, I'm sure about 90% of these backup sites users use only the free plans. That can't be economical - rm249, on 11/16/2009, -0/+1You could always register a second Dropbox account and then setup a shared folder between the two. Not sure if that's against their TOS though (probably) but it's worth a shot :P
- hexdump, on 11/16/2009, -0/+1It's explicitly allowed by the fine people at Dropbox, though they may change this policy once selective sync is in a stable release. I actually have a secondary (free) account in addition to my primary (pay) account. This is useful on my netbook, but I'd like to be able to share more than the 2 GB allowed on a free account.
- RAT-Man, on 11/16/2009, -0/+1Carbonite. Leo picked a good one there.
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