Anybody using online backup?

[no1photog]

Is anyone out there using online backup for their digital images? I have about 500GB of mixed files to backup and I am trying to find a good online backup service specifically for business. I've tried Mozy but haven't been happy with it as of late and I'm skeptical about Carbonite after researching and reading the reviews. Any solid recommendations are greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Ed Kelsey]

Carbonite ! Try it free for 15 days.

[MMELVIS]

http://www.livedrive.com/ForHome

or

http://aws.amazon.com/s3/#pricing


Both services work for my purposes.

[jp]

I've got a low power pc (intel atom based) with a 2 TB drive in my detached garage 150' away. It's on a inexpensive UPS also. I back up to that over ethernet.

That removes most of the risk by having the data "offsite" in the event of a surge, fire, theft. I back up several gigs at a time, and I think that's a little much for most common Internet connections to handle quickly.

[Nathan Potter]

I've thought about this but how practical can it be. My data rate over Time Warner cable is about a MB/sec. So it would take about 6 days to back up 500GB. Worse yet we will soon be charged for the volume per month; rates possibly starting to scale up from the first 25 or 50 GB/month.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Richard Mahoney]

I've thought about this but how practical can it be. My data rate over Time Warner cable is about a MB/sec. So it would take about 6 days to back up 500GB. Worse yet we will soon be charged for the volume per month; rates possibly starting to scale up from the first 25 or 50 GB/month.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

On UNIX or UNIX-like systems `rsync' has always been your friend. It only copies data that has changed and is fast and efficient. I'm sure it, or something like it, must be available for Macs and Windows.


Kind regards,

Richard

[Ed Richards]

Crashplan is the best I found. Used Mozy until they started charging by the gig. Crashplan lets you back up to the cloud and at the same time to a local drive. No data limits. Took a month to back up my 500+gigs, but once it is done, it is smart about uploading changes and the like. Also allows saving versions, so new files do not automatically overwrite old ones. (At least I think so.) Even emails you a status report each day so you can see if there are problems. Best of all, if you really need it, say after the fire or flood, they send you a harddrive with your data. You do not have to download it over the next month.:-)

[Marko]

The initial backup under any OS will inevitably be long. After that, it's only the incremental data that gets written. Conversely, any full restore would require a complete transfer as well.

As for online systems, there is also the iDrive. There are some pretty decent reviews out there.

[jeroldharter]

I use Carbonite. When my old laptop was replaced, all I had to do was restore the files and everything was there. Of course, it took almost two days but required no work on my part. Well worth the money.

[Kuzano]

Seems as if I recall, just a few years ago that a web site marketing to photographers, disappeared off the internet. Have you ever tried to locate the owners or persons responsible for an internet web site, when they just don't come up on your computer one day. And, I know for a fact that a site went down about ten years ago, because I lost some images. Fortunately I had my own backups. You cannot make a web site responsible for your sole backup. That's a responsibility only you can own.

I've mentioned two, and I'm sure there are others that have disappeared over time.

It's turning out that "cloud" computing is turning out to be somewhat of a disappointment to many.