Online backup solutions

Hobbes

So for the past few years, I have been using McAfee as my online solution but they are now shutting that down. Hell, I had almost 1TB of photos backed up for $5/month.

Now I find myself looking to another solution. I do like the online as opposed to removable disk as they WILL fail eventually.

Need a new provider.
I am leaning towards Carbonite or Crashplan but they do not support backup of my NAS only local and removeable drives.

Anyone here use one?

wildbill7145

I really have to get a little bit more serious about this as well. I've got all my invoices, business crap on this thing and if anything happens to it I'm in pretty serious trouble.

Online could fail as well though couldn't it? I suppose they have redundant systems in place.

I've considered just getting a redundant external drive and only plugging it in for the purpose of backing up. I'd have to get pretty organized and disciplined to make sure that happened though.

I'm guessing both online and in house hardware would probably be the safest situation.

GTA Poker

Have external hard drives improved over the past 5 years? Past one i had crashed prior to any primary computer issues.

Hobbes

Drives are still prone to failure short of having a RAID array.

Ideally you should have 3 copies of important data in at least 2 sites Bill. Protects you from fire and theft.

SuperNed

If it's just data back up, these days a decent external hard drive will last almost forever (10 years +) imo. It's not like it's being written on and written over with temp files, operating systems etc. It's for storage so this is extremely 'light' on the drive. I've never had one fail on me yet. I don't trust online storage and would definitely never pay for it..

Hobbes

Where do you store the harddrive Ned?

At home? Can you afford to lose the "just data" if your house is broken into or burns down or like a current forumer gets hit by a tornado?

compuease

As Hobbes said, neither local backup or online backup is enough for critical data, and only YOU can determine what is critical. Have 3 locations for your data, with at least one of them being offsite, whether it be cloud backup or physical in a different location, neighbor, friends, relatives or perhaps safety deposit box.
For cloud backup, one of the simplest is google drive ($10. per monthe for 1TB I believe.) However since this is online with your pc all the time it is not fool proof. It is susceptible to encryption malware for sure. I have seen this happen twice. This is why I suggest at least one offline backup.
How about Mozy? We have used it for several business customers, as well as Carbonite.

Any questions just ask.

SuperNed

Yes, it's at home. Worst case scenario my data gets destroyed. People survived pre 1980 with hard copies of data.
In all reality my 'data' isn't life or death stuff (and neither is almost anybody else's in reality), but the most important stuff I put on and external hard drive and back up on DVD's which are of course not that reliable but if they are burned and stored as a 'never use unless there is a serious problem' they are quite reliable. I think many people think their data is more important than it is. If my house burns down life will go on without computer data, but as suggested something off site at a relatives isn't a bad idea. To each their own, but if I consider my data to be super important financial stuff or otherwise, the last place I want it is on the 'cloud' for some hacker to get into at some point in the future.

compuease

SuperNed;387430 wroteTo each their own, but if I consider my data to be super important financial stuff or otherwise, the last place I want it is on the 'cloud' for some hacker to get into at some point in the future.

Umm hate to tell you this but a typical hacker is looking for login info, social security info, and the like, not your personal data but rather your personal "info". That's what is worth money. The cloud is actually more secure than your personal computer given that Apple/Google and the like have a lot more money and skill to protect it (as well as their reputation) that you and I do in our homes. If you have a typical home router that you spent less than $100. on and didn't have someone set it up properly, you are far more open than what you refer to as the 'cloud'. At home you are safe only because you are a small insignificant target.

eg, is your router using wpa2 with a strong password containing capitals and special characters? I did a drive by in some of the subdivisions near where I live and found numerous routers with no protection at all. Hard to believe in today's day and age but it's true.

wildbill7145

compuease;387425 wrote For cloud backup, one of the simplest is google drive ($10. per monthe for 1TB I believe.)

And if you don't need 1Tb, there are cheaper and free options as well. I should set this up today unless I find other methods of procrastinating.

Google Drive Gets A Big Price Drop, 100GB Now Costs $1.99 A Month | TechCrunch

chaimr1924

With the new lower price and many GB I have been using USB sticks to save important documents etc.

SuperNed

compuease;387437 wroteUmm hate to tell you this but a typical hacker is looking for login info, social security info, and the like, not your personal data but rather your personal "info". That's what is worth money. The cloud is actually more secure than your personal computer given that Apple/Google and the like have a lot more money and skill to protect it (as well as their reputation) that you and I do in our homes. If you have a typical home router that you spent less than $100. on and didn't have someone set it up properly, you are far more open than what you refer to as the 'cloud'. At home you are safe only because you are a small insignificant target.

eg, is your router using wpa2 with a strong password containing capitals and special characters? I did a drive by in some of the subdivisions near where I live and found numerous routers with no protection at all. Hard to believe in today's day and age but it's true.

Well, my financial info etc includes tax return pdfs etc with social insurance numbers and pretty much everything else someone would need to take your identity etc so I would not want that to get out. I don't even keep that stuff on my computer operating hard drive. As for the 'cloud' being secure, recently seeing a torrent with hundreds of nude selfies of hollywood stars who who probably thought the same thing. And the router, I actually 'unbridged' it if that's the right terminology. Even on my laptop I like to keep it oldschool with cables :-\. Obviously nothing is 100% secure, but I personally would never feel comfortable with any online storage and would never pay for it anyway. I don't online bank/brokerage on hotel wifi either. Call me paranoid.
Sure, I might store some pics and generic files I may need on the go but if I ever get to the point in my life where I need more than 5 gigs of 'data' while I'm on the go I think I'd need to get off the grid. That's just me though and obviously everyone has different needs. For me, I have this nagging feeling that at some point a big 'online' world wide terrorist super clusterf#ck will happen. Again, probably just being paranoid but that's me :)

Hobbes

SuperNed;387477 wrote As for the 'cloud' being secure, recently seeing a torrent with hundreds of nude selfies of hollywood stars who who probably thought the same thing.

The cloud is only as secure as your password. If your password is not complex (letters/numbers/special characters) and long (> 12 characters) it is not difficult to crack.

If any cloud company wants to manage the encryption key, I would not deal with them. I manage my own key and for added security any files that I have that contain personal info are encrypted before I back them up.

moose

compuease;387437 wroteUmm hate to tell you this but a typical hacker is looking for login info, social security info, and the like, not your personal data but rather your personal "info". That's what is worth money. The cloud is actually more secure than your personal computer given that Apple/Google and the like have a lot more money and skill to protect it (as well as their reputation) that you and I do in our homes. If you have a typical home router that you spent less than $100. on and didn't have someone set it up properly, you are far more open than what you refer to as the 'cloud'. At home you are safe only because you are a small insignificant target.

Unless you are a celebrity who likes to back up pics of yourself banging your boyfriend.

StillTheSame

I use IDrive. They're affordable, secure and give you backup for an unlimited number of devices. They also offer synology and QNAP apps for backing up NAS devices, OP.

compuease

StillTheSame;387627 wroteI use IDrive. They're affordable, secure and give you backup for an unlimited number of devices. They also offer synology and QNAP apps for backing up NAS devices, OP.

Why are they any more secure or affordable than any of the other myriad of options?