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Cloud storage for iPhoto backup?

MonkeySee.... said:
I hate to say it but Picasa and Picasa Web were absolutly ace for backign up photos. Auto synced and everything
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Yes I know, but want a solution that can handle odd file types as well - like 3DStudioMax, Sketchup, Maya and whatever type of rendering I fiddle with. It's not an actual photo backup as in wanting to have a slideshow online - it's just backup.

:)
 
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Here's another vote for Crashplan. Has worked flawlessly backing up my 40GB photo collection. I also backup to two separate external hard drives using Time Machine. In addition to the copies saved on my Mac itself, I feel pretty secure that my photos are safe.
 
I think I have made up my mind and will go with Crashplan.

Lately I have had a few questions and they respond flawlessly and quick:



1. CrashPlan runs RAID 6 on all of our servers.

2. We do have several data centers that we operate but your data is not replicated in multiple data centers. Instead, we offer you the ability to backup locally, remotely, and to the cloud. You can see a video from our CEO explaining this process:

http://crashplan.com/blog/tips-tricks/multi

3. We assume that technology fails and plan for it. That is why we offer multiple destination backups. You can backup to the cloud, on an external drive, and to friend's computers off site. This is how we can guarantee that you will not lose data using our product, but it is up to you to use all of the features to ensure this. CrashPlan will go through all available recovery options if data is lost on our servers. CrashPlan does not offer compensation if data is lost.


Have a few more questions for them about their FamilyPlan I just send in, so lets see what they answer. I want to be sure my data is in safe hands.
 
AT0MAC said:
I think I have made up my mind and will go with Crashplan.

Lately I have had a few questions and they respond flawlessly and quick:



1. CrashPlan runs RAID 6 on all of our servers.

2. We do have several data centers that we operate but your data is not replicated in multiple data centers. Instead, we offer you the ability to backup locally, remotely, and to the cloud. You can see a video from our CEO explaining this process:

http://crashplan.com/blog/tips-tricks/multi

3. We assume that technology fails and plan for it. That is why we offer multiple destination backups. You can backup to the cloud, on an external drive, and to friend's computers off site. This is how we can guarantee that you will not lose data using our product, but it is up to you to use all of the features to ensure this. CrashPlan will go through all available recovery options if data is lost on our servers. CrashPlan does not offer compensation if data is lost.


Have a few more questions for them about their FamilyPlan I just send in, so lets see what they answer. I want to be sure my data is in safe hands.
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So two out of three options that they make you pay for is unrelated to them (backups to an external drive and to a friend's house), they don't protect your data from something happening to their facilities by keeping it in at least two different locations, they tell you THEY plan for technology malfunction by letting YOU make a LOCAL backup and they offer no guarantee that your data is safe? It kind of sounds like a bad joke.
 
hafr said:
So two out of three options that they make you pay for is unrelated to them (backups to an external drive and to a friend's house), they don't protect your data from something happening to their facilities by keeping it in at least two different locations, they tell you THEY plan for technology malfunction by letting YOU make a LOCAL backup and they offer no guarantee that your data is safe? It kind of sounds like a bad joke.
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They aren't and don't pretend to be your one and only backup plan. Would it be nice if they replicated your data? Sure, but given that they are one of the few providers that offers truly unlimited storage space for a flat monthly fee, it's not at all surprising. Even if they did, you can't trust ANY single backup as your sole option. Files can still get corrupted - and the replicated files will just be a replica of the corruption. You need two or more physical locations, preferably using at least two systems.

Using Crashplan software to backup locally or to another computer (even over the Internet) is completely free.

What do you propose that's a better option in this price tier?
 
zhenya said:
They aren't and don't pretend to be your one and only backup plan. Would it be nice if they replicated your data? Sure, but given that they are one of the few providers that offers truly unlimited storage space for a flat monthly fee, it's not at all surprising. Even if they did, you can't trust ANY single backup as your sole option. Files can still get corrupted - and the replicated files will just be a replica of the corruption. You need two or more physical locations, preferably using at least two systems.

Using Crashplan software to backup locally or to another computer (even over the Internet) is completely free.

What do you propose that's a better option in this price tier?
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Would you use the services of a bank or an insurance company that said things like this, just because they're cheap?

"Use us, we'll keep your valuable stuff safe by letting you guard it yourself, and in case something happens we can't be held responsible."

Sure, it's a cheaper option than buying your own RAID-setup and replacing the drives every five years (which is about as long as I would trust a mechanical drive for important things like backups), it's in the cloud and it's most likely very secure. So all in all, a good option as one of your backups. I just found their answers quite strange.
 
hafr said:
Would you use the services of a bank or an insurance company that said things like this, just because they're cheap?

"Use us, we'll keep your valuable stuff safe by letting you guard it yourself, and in case something happens we can't be held responsible."

Sure, it's a cheaper option than buying your own RAID-setup and replacing the drives every five years (which is about as long as I would trust a mechanical drive for important things like backups), it's in the cloud and it's most likely very secure. So all in all, a good option as one of your backups. I just found their answers quite strange.
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They gave a truthful and straightforward answer. They don't replicate, which makes sense and isn't really much added protection as I noted above, and they told him exactly the truth - don't trust us as your only backup source - any service that says anything else is being disingenuous and dangerously misleading their customers.
 
zhenya said:
They gave a truthful and straightforward answer. They don't replicate, which makes sense and isn't really much added protection as I noted above, and they told him exactly the truth - don't trust us as your only backup source - any service that says anything else is being disingenuous and dangerously misleading their customers.
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I don't interpret their answer that way. I see it as they're using your local backup as a selling point for their product, instead of using the fact that multiple backups is a good thing as a selling point for their product being a good thing to have in addition to your local backup. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say :)

It's kind of like when you see workout equipment being advertised and they say things like "five minutes a day on this machine will change your life" and then in very small print you read "don't forget to follow the strict diet plan included in the package". See what I mean?
 
AT0MAC said:
I have a rather extensive iPhoto library of currently 27GB of data.
All pictures in full 8-12MP resolution from various cameras I have owned the past 10 years.

As I recently became a dad security of those pictures are now the top 1 priority on my IT budget!

I want a cloud service that can do the following:

  • Upload a full copy of my iPhoto library (the whole 27GB file)
  • Upload it without I have to move it to a special folder
  • Upload it as soon there have been a change to the file or on a specific time everyday
  • Top secure and trusted company

So far I have found out in my own research that GoogleDrive, SkyDrive, iCloud and various smaller companies can't do what I want.
Dropbox is a very nice way to do it, but it's expensive and annoying I have to move it to their own folder for uploading.


The two I have found could be a good choice is Amazon Cloud Drive and SugarSync - out of those two Amazon is bigger and cheaper so I think I prefer them so far...


What can you recommend??
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I would use dropbox, upgrade it to the size you need whether 50-100 gb, for a price of like $50 a year or something, you could access them anytime online on phone or tablet and you could send the pictures from dropbox to an email, which you can't usually do because email services only allow 10-15 mb, this way you can send a single file of as big as you want (you could compress files together if you want to send alot together, so zip files), if i am not wrong and people can see them online and save/download.
Only thing is the 27 GBhave to be uploaded onto dropbox, might take a while but dropbox is my life so i love it :D
 
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hafr said:
I don't interpret their answer that way. I see it as they're using your local backup as a selling point for their product, instead of using the fact that multiple backups is a good thing as a selling point for their product being a good thing to have in addition to your local backup. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say :)

It's kind of like when you see workout equipment being advertised and they say things like "five minutes a day on this machine will change your life" and then in very small print you read "don't forget to follow the strict diet plan included in the package". See what I mean?
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I know what you mean and I was a bit shocked too when they told me, but then again, I don't seem to find others that have unlimited backup for that low price, as quick upload speed, as intuitive interface and as helpful support - all things that point in direction of that Crashplan is the company to choose.

-------

I asked them yesterday how they intend to manage a family plan when you have more than one computer, as to how do I see what backup is from which computer and if I can manage all computers from one interface. Answer was:


"Each computer will have a unique ID and name to distinguish them. Everyone shares in on the Family Plan, so there's not really a "manage" account or anything like that. It's more like 2-10 licenses rather than a manageable master account."

I wish I could buy into an Crashplan PRO plan, because that would give me a lot more smooth interface that controls all computers at once.
Crashplan PRO though, is only available in the US :(


Now I just need to find out how I avoid it backing up two versions of the same files when I soon move the whole media library to my Ubuntu based server, which will of course run Crashplan Linux Desktop and be backing up everything on it's own. Yet another support ticket on its way to their office...
 
IDrive, Crashplan, Backblaze and MyPCBackup would be a good fit keeping in mind your extensive storage need. I have been using MyPCbackup since 2 months and have been storing various big data files like photos (quiet similar to the one that you mentioned) and it works good for me.
 
Btw the dropbox thing that you said is untrue, u dont have to copy them to another folder simply go to dropbox.com and upload the pics, no need to copy them on your desktop. And once u do so, if you use dropbox for other things and its a neccesity to have it on your desktop simply right click, press on dropbox preferences and you can choose what you want and dont want to be downloaded on your laptop, simply uncheck the photos folder and ull just have it online rather on your desktop. :) easy as pi :p
 
I use Crashplan to back up our Macs. I use Smugmug for photos. I do NOT allow iPhoto to have originals of ANY of my photos, including photostream.

Once a month, I drag all my photos out of photostream (drag not export) and the originals are on my file system where I can manage the files myself including importing them (without copying) back into iPhoto for faces, places, etc. I also upload them to Smugmug for backup. Be careful with flickr, picasa, google+ and others who promise free or low cost photo backup. Some services automatically downsize your photos and if that's your only copy for some reason, data is lost.

I am very happy with crashplan which offers a free version to copy to a usb drive, network drive or even a friend's computer. The pay version backs up to crashplan's servers and I have used it once to recover when Time Machine got corrupted and my wife was on the verge of losing all her data forever.
 
Bilalo said:
Btw the dropbox thing that you said is untrue, u dont have to copy them to another folder simply go to dropbox.com and upload the pics, no need to copy them on your desktop. And once u do so, if you use dropbox for other things and its a neccesity to have it on your desktop simply right click, press on dropbox preferences and you can choose what you want and dont want to be downloaded on your laptop, simply uncheck the photos folder and ull just have it online rather on your desktop. :) easy as pi :p
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Sorry to tell that you are wrong - normal use of Dropbox requires you to copy whatever you want in their cloud to your special dropbox folder. If you use the online option you can choose files from anywhere yes, but it will not keep them in sync and there is an upload limit of 300MB (iPhoto library is one single container file).

Secondly, Dropbox is hugely expensive for the size I need.

----------

More exciting info from the absolutely helpful staff at Crashplan:

Asked them how to be sure I will not re-upload all my data when I move my media library to a Ubuntu based NAS computer running their software:

"You can add the NAS to your backup selection just as you did with the external drive. To avoid re-uploading any data, it's important to not remove the old location (external drive) just yet. CrashPlan will perform a scan and will pass over any files that it see have already been uploaded to our servers. Once your backup is at 100%, you can remove the old drive from your backup selection.

CrashPlan will always retain the newest version of a file, so if a file hasn't had any changes in a while, it will still remain in your archive. CrashPlan only removes older versions of files, and this is done according to your retention settings:

http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/reference/version_retention_and_backup_frequency"

Also I found this link about the subject.

They by mistake send me another mail that was actually not intended for me but still nice to know:

"Our goal for CrashPlan is to provide secure, reliable, unlimited backup at a great price. We do not throttle uploads or limit file sizes or types.

Like other services that share resources with a pool of users (i.e. cable internet; cellular data), CrashPlan's speed varies depending on the number of simultaneous users and what they are uploading and downloading at the time. Most users get speeds that completely meet their needs.

If you happen to have a very fast internet connection, it is unlikely that backups to CrashPlan Central will be able to match your upload limit. This is not a bug - it's the nature of a shared service which is designed to be affordable. We work to ensure that everyone gets sufficient bandwidth for uploads, and is able to get a reasonable speed.

We're continually monitoring usage across our data centers and we are strategically adding capacity (servers, storage and bandwidth) to our infrastructure to deliver optimum performance to all users."
 
AT0MAC said:
[/COLOR]More exciting info from the absolutely helpful staff at Crashplan:

Asked them how to be sure I will not re-upload all my data when I move my media library to a Ubuntu based NAS computer running their software:

"You can add the NAS to your backup selection just as you did with the external drive. To avoid re-uploading any data, it's important to not remove the old location (external drive) just yet. CrashPlan will perform a scan and will pass over any files that it see have already been uploaded to our servers. Once your backup is at 100%, you can remove the old drive from your backup selection.

CrashPlan will always retain the newest version of a file, so if a file hasn't had any changes in a while, it will still remain in your archive. CrashPlan only removes older versions of files, and this is done according to your retention settings:
Click to expand...

Yeah, an unlimited service like CrashPlan has a real business interest in very good data de-duplication, and I can confirm theirs works as advertised. I recently moved nearly 800GB from a Ubuntu NAS to a directly connected drive, and I saw no change in my storage usage on Crashplan's servers.

I think the fact that they do offer unlimited space makes them unique in how motivated they are to handle this - any duplication is a cost for them, whereas when you pay per GB, it's a cost for you (as well as extra profit for the provider).
 
zhenya said:
I think the fact that they do offer unlimited space makes them unique in how motivated they are to handle this - any duplication is a cost for them, whereas when you pay per GB, it's a cost for you (as well as extra profit for the provider).
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Thats a really good point, haven't thought about it like that :)
 
Bilalo said:
Btw the dropbox thing that you said is untrue, u dont have to copy them to another folder simply go to dropbox.com and upload the pics, no need to copy them on your desktop. And once u do so, if you use dropbox for other things and its a neccesity to have it on your desktop simply right click, press on dropbox preferences and you can choose what you want and dont want to be downloaded on your laptop, simply uncheck the photos folder and ull just have it online rather on your desktop. :) easy as pi :p
Click to expand...

Well, i don't think that you are making it correct. It ask for a specific folder and if you are not storing it on your PC, then the thing that you uploaded through Dropbox website won't be synced if you access it locally through your desktop. It will remain on the Dropbox's network as an online format file and you noew to download or use it in the same windows to perform any option.

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zhenya said:
Yeah, an unlimited service like CrashPlan has a real business interest in very good data de-duplication, and I can confirm theirs works as advertised. I recently moved nearly 800GB from a Ubuntu NAS to a directly connected drive, and I saw no change in my storage usage on Crashplan's servers.

I think the fact that they do offer unlimited space makes them unique in how motivated they are to handle this - any duplication is a cost for them, whereas when you pay per GB, it's a cost for you (as well as extra profit for the provider).
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Yes, that is a very vital point which you have just shared. The prices is cheap but i think you can not compare CrashPlan with Dropbox? I think both are different! Dropbox is not doubt expensive, you may try some other alternatives as well to cater your storage needs!
 
On a recent workshop I attended, I was told that icloud automatically stores either your last 1000 photos taken, or all photos taken within the last 30 days (which ever is the greater). This is in addition to the standard icloud storage limit (5gb?).
 
AT0MAC said:
I think I have made up my mind and will go with Crashplan.
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Have you got it setup yet? I am wondering if I chose poorly with Arq (still on trial for another week). It is a great system, but now that I'm backing a couple things up, I'm wondering why I'm not just doing it all. S3 is too expensive for that. I have maybe 100GB to backup. Leaning towards backblaze though (native app).
 
scarred said:
Have you got it setup yet? I am wondering if I chose poorly with Arq (still on trial for another week). It is a great system, but now that I'm backing a couple things up, I'm wondering why I'm not just doing it all. S3 is too expensive for that. I have maybe 100GB to backup. Leaning towards backblaze though (native app).
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Yes, I set it up an am currently still in my 30 days free trial and very happy with it. Specially their support is really nice!

One minor drawback is that whenever the app stars a backup scan, then the fans in my Mac speeds up to about 2500rpm, were they normally are about 1700-1800rpm. Only solution to bring it back down is as soon as the backup is done, then I force quit/restart Finder.

I am currently running with 70GB in the clouds but will most likely keep it - and that means moving close to 2TB to the cloud - therefor I pretty quickly quit Amazon S3...
 
AT0MAC said:
Yes, I set it up an am currently still in my 30 days free trial and very happy with it. Specially their support is really nice!

One minor drawback is that whenever the app stars a backup scan, then the fans in my Mac speeds up to about 2500rpm, were they normally are about 1700-1800rpm. Only solution to bring it back down is as soon as the backup is done, then I force quit/restart Finder.

I am currently running with 70GB in the clouds but will most likely keep it - and that means moving close to 2TB to the cloud - therefor I pretty quickly quit Amazon S3...
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Thanks for that. I'm really worried about the whole java aspect of crash plan, so I just setup the trial for back blaze (native os x app). So far so good! It just works... I don't even see it show up in activity monitor. We'll see how my test restore goes. If that works well, fifty for the year is very reasonable and I'll just subscribe and forget about it.
 
scarred said:
Thanks for that. I'm really worried about the whole java aspect of crash plan, so I just setup the trial for back blaze (native os x app). So far so good! It just works... I don't even see it show up in activity monitor. We'll see how my test restore goes. If that works well, fifty for the year is very reasonable and I'll just subscribe and forget about it.
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I have been using Crashplan for a couple of years on two computers and never noticed even the slightest performance hit. The main computer is a 2008 C2D imac, so not exactly blazing fast hardware.

Backblaze looks like a fine choice, but I still don't see any advantages over Crashplan.

- More expensive ($5/computer/month vs. $6 or less for an entire household)
- Can't back up network locations
- 30 days maximum deleted file retention

Not a bad deal, but when I've had as good of luck with Crashplan as I've had they don't offer anything appealing enough to ever consider switching.
 
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