Cloud backup, where?

What site are you using for cloud storage, what is the cost and reliability? Thanks

I've been using Crashplan for a couple of years. Its $60/yr for one computer and (I think) $150/yr for up to 10 computers managed by a single "family share" account. I don't have any complaints and yes, I have restored files from them. Most of my data lives on a Synology NAS and the have a package for it.

CrashPlan for smaller data files - I have around 2GB there I think. Large data (images, videos, etc) are backed up to onsite and offsite hard drives.

I have a few hundred GB's in Windows Azure storage. Since I get free Azure with an MSDN membership, it doesn't cost me a dime.

You may want to consider SkyDrive, you can purchase 100 GB for $50/yr, 200 GB for $100/yr, or 500 GB for $250/yr. Using the SkyDrive app you can sync a folder of your choice so you can just put images in the folder you're syncing and let SkyDrive push them up. Or use something like SyncToy to copy your images to the SkyDrive folder on a schedule. Just a thought.

How much space do you need?
I'm using Godaddy's online backup, which gives you 100 GB for $2.49/month minus coupons that are always sent out.
http://www.godaddy.com​/email/online-storage.aspx
https://www.onlinefile​folder.com/
There is a trial.

Have you thought about the new Western Digital Cloud Hard Drive?
http://www.amazon.com …rds=western+dig​ita+lcloud

I just saw this on TV today and I am looking into it.

Another option if (if your wireless router supports it) is to have that setup with an external hard drive setup to it.

And have either one or both at different locations. I have it at my parents house with the wireless router.

I have quite a few files to back up between my files and my wife's. I am now thinking more along the lines on an offsite hard drive. Been talking to a friend and we are going to set up drives in each others home, much cheaper over the long haul. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Crashplan will let you backup to another Crashplan user "friend" computer offsite for free, you don't need to buy the service.

This does give you a simple/cheap offsite option, although somebody's home PC probably isn't real resilient (power issues, consumer grade hard drives, etc.)

CincyTriGuy wrote in post #16426207
I have a few hundred GB's in Windows Azure storage. Since I get free Azure with an MSDN membership, it doesn't cost me a dime.

You may want to consider SkyDrive, you can purchase 100 GB for $50/yr, 200 GB for $100/yr, or 500 GB for $250/yr. Using the SkyDrive app you can sync a folder of your choice so you can just put images in the folder you're syncing and let SkyDrive push them up. Or use something like SyncToy to copy your images to the SkyDrive folder on a schedule. Just a thought.

Do keep in mind that synced drives aren't really a 'backup'. They are a second physical copy of the same logical data, and there is a HUGE difference between the two.

A real 'backup' system means that it is very hard to delete, overwrite, or otherwise corrupt data. With synced drives, if I delete a file, change it, etc, on my computer, then it happily passes those changes on to the other copy.


Where real backup solutions differ is that if you DO change something, and then back that data up again, then you can still retrieve the original copy.

Logical mirroring is better than nothing, but it only protects you against hardware failure. It doesn't generally offer strong protection against things like accidental deletion, over writes, data changes, etc.

Luckless wrote in post #16445191
Do keep in mind that synced drives aren't really a 'backup'. They are a second physical copy of the same logical data, and there is a HUGE difference between the two.

That is correct, and a good point to clarify since not everyone might realize that backup and sync are 2 different things.

Luckless wrote in post #16445191
Do keep in mind that synced drives aren't really a 'backup'. They are a second physical copy of the same logical data, and there is a HUGE difference between the two.

A real 'backup' system means that it is very hard to delete, overwrite, or otherwise corrupt data. With synced drives, if I delete a file, change it, etc, on my computer, then it happily passes those changes on to the other copy.


Where real backup solutions differ is that if you DO change something, and then back that data up again, then you can still retrieve the original copy.

Logical mirroring is better than nothing, but it only protects you against hardware failure. It doesn't generally offer strong protection against things like accidental deletion, over writes, data changes, etc.

Cryptolocker renders a lot of people's backup strategies useless since it happily attacks files on any accessible drive. You need offline backups and file versioning to really protect your data.

CrashPlan is one of my many backups. Best thing about CrashPlan is their Seed Service, you can get your initial backup done fast. They send you a hard drive, you fill it and then you don't have to wait for days/weeks/months for your initial backup. I've got over 3TB on CrashPlan, can't recommend them high enough for a tertiary level of backup.

More on my backup/storage here:
https://photography-on-the.net …p?p=16448261&po​stcount=11

I'm a little overboard on the backups too but I figure i cant replace them if they are gone. I've got a 1 TB external that goes into a external harddrive reader, thats my main source for dumping pictures. That then syncs up with a QNAP NAS, running raid 1 - which is backed up via Crashplan. I then download from the NAS, to a usb3 external hd for editing on my mac.

So in a sense, I have 4 separate places where my pics are stored, one offsite, and three onsite.

Amazon Glacier is worth investigating for long term backups. I'm not sure cloud is appropriate for large backups from a financial perspective.

RHChan84 wrote in post #16433026
Have you thought about the new Western Digital Cloud Hard Drive?
http://www.amazon.com …rds=western+dig​ita+lcloud

I just saw this on TV today and I am looking into it.

Another option if (if your wireless router supports it) is to have that setup with an external hard drive setup to it.

And have either one or both at different locations. I have it at my parents house with the wireless router.

Watch out - just one of a huge number of misuses of "cloud".

The main thing here is that for long-term use, you need to store the drives (more than one of them) somewhere else, so a single fire doesn't catch everything.

What a number of products allow - available since long before the cloud hype, is for you to access a drive when out traveling. So you can backup your photos, your phon, pad etc while traveling. That is very good, since it reduces the number of days/hours you are vulnerable with new, and unprotected, information.

A number of routers allows one or more standard USB disks to be accessible when you are out traveling, so there are solutions that doesn't require special "cloud" disks.

But for off-site backup, you need data stored at your parents, or at your work or at a friend. Else you will not be able to check off one off-site copy. And you really should consider two off-site copies.