How to do: multiple discs

I wouldn't recommend using optical disks as a backup medium. They're too prone to damage or other problems. Use a USB Flash drive or an external drive for backups.

 

Of course, you can do what you like, but the chances of drives crashing is far less than the chances of problems with optical disks.

 

As long as you have several backups that should be fairly safe, but h would hardly call CDs/DVDs safe. Alternatively you can also back them up in the cloud via Dropbox or some other means.

Having backed up to CDs/DVDs for years I can safely say they are an immensely crappy form of backup.

 

In my experience, HDs rarely gave me problems. But CDs and DVDs didn't either.
I like to have "important" data on both media, if possible.
The chances of BOTH going bad are a bit more to my liking.

 

No, they're not. They're easily susceptible to scratches, bending, breaking, melting, clouding, etc. Even in pristine condition, they don't always work in all optical drives. A hard drive is much more resilient and more likely to outlast any CD or DVD in usefulness.

 

90 GB is a pittance. Cloud backup is dirt cheap. I personally use Crashplan+... and my backup for my primary computer as been as high as 1.4TB. Unlimited backup at $3/month is a steal.

/Jim

 

Couldn't agree more. Why bother with all the DVDs when you can pay a few dollars a month and have it all stored in the cloud.

There are many providers now, I used to use crash plan but am now using Backblaze. Fantastic product, runs in the background and you can just forget about it.

Others too, Mozy, Sugarsync, dollydrive, dropbox...I am sure you can find something you like. Most of them will cost you the same each month as a cup of coffee.

Use this with time machine and/or carbon copy cloner, and it virtually guarantees you never lose anything ever again.

I have some DVDs that I made 5 years ago of photos..now mostly unreadable.

 

There are several good providers. I previously used Mozy... but switched to Crashplan after a couple of years when I realized that Mozy only kept deleted data for 30 days. One of the big things I want to protect against is inadvertent deletion. I can now go back to the beginning of time and get any file, photography, whatever. They are all there.

I use Crashplan's family plan. For $6/month, not only do we back up all of our computers in the house... but my two daughters away at college out of state, and out of the country have their computers backed up as well.

/Jim

 

If you are needing to back up that much data for archiving, I would recommend purchasing an external Blu-ray drive and double layer (50GB) discs.

Regarding durability, optical discs are not susceptible to magnetic damage like hard disks are. This is a big advantage IMO. They are susceptible to "bit rot" where the disc may "age" over time and possibly become unreadable. If you use quality media, however, this should not be a problem. The scratches, heat, etc., should not be an issue if the discs are cared for as they are supposed to be - stored in a jewel case and placed in a safe location.

I personally will not back up any of my data to any "cloud" backup service. It is just a matter of time until these services become compromised, and once your data is out there, it is out there. There is no getting it back or removing it. Photos and music may not be very private, but when it comes to other files and data such as passwords, financial information , business data and other sensitive data - I have not and will not allow this to be stored on someone else's servers that I do not have control over. Dropbox has already had a major security issue reported in the past year where you could log into any account with any password you chose (you could type anything in the password field and it would accept it). This is one example. Who knows how many other times this may occur, and even it it will be reported. Storage is cheap - 3TB drives are inexpensive, and if your data has value the peace of mind is well worth the cost of an external drive.

 

There is a huge difference between programs like dropbox, email accounts, bank accounts, and other services which by design... must have access to your data. Because they must have access to your data (i.e.: your bank must know your account, password, financial history, etc) then if their system is breached, so is your data.

Online backup is completely different. You control the key, you encrypt the data on your own machine, only strongly encrypted data ever leaves your machine, your key never leaves your machine. As a result, you could (if you desired) place your encrypted data in the open, available for anyone to access... and nobody would be able to crack your data. Of course you would not do this... but the point is that you are not trusting your data to someone else. You are only storing encrypted data someplace else.

By far... the most risky thing you have is an email account. By definition, they are cloud services... and virtually every email account has enough information to perform identity theft. Cloud backup is infinitely more secure.

Your fear is akin to the once widely held fear that it was unsafe to put money in a bank. As it ends up... banks are generally considered more safe than mattresses.

/Jim

 

I understand the encryption, but I also know encryption can be broken. I work and administer servers that are backed up to Evault, but I just would not send my own data across the wire like that to unknown servers. This data is replicated to multiple data centers, and backed up by their own backup standards as well. Therefore, you have many copies of your data out there - something I don't want to do. I use iCloud, Photostream, iTunes Match, etc. This data is not that sensitive, but for sensitive data, I will take care of backups myself.

Similar to WiFi networks - sure - a WPA2 key would be difficult to crack, but the data can be sniffed without issue. Once that is sniffed, it can be brute force cracked. It may take a significant amount of time to crack it, but as CPUs and GPUs get faster, this time will go down. The data may not be worth much by the time it is cracked, but it is possible.

My email lives on my own Exchange Server. Obviously no email is encrypted while is transit, so it would be foolish to send anything confidential through email.

 

WPA2 is much better than WPA or WEP... but I agree it is only a matter of time before that can be brute force attacked. By contrast, the cryptographic experts that I know feel that 448b encryption (that used by Mozy and CrashPlan+) will not be cracked in my lifetime of the grandchildren of my yet unborn grandchildren.

The fact that you send and receive email (we all do)... is a MUCH larger security risk than we generally realize. My understanding is that the vast majority of email accounts have enough information in them to easily commit identity theft. If we lose our data, our identity, our savings, etc... it will be through these gaping holes... not from online backup using 448b encryption on your own machine using a key you control.

Of course you should do what you feel best. I am just trying to put the relative risks into perspective.

Personally, I do use a pair of GoFlex USB/FW800/TB drives to keep all of my media data (photos, home movies). I keep one in my office in a locked desk drawer, and whenever I make significant changes to my media, I update the copy at home, and then swap it with the version in the office. I end up swapping them a few times a month on average. The version in my house is kept in a fireproof safe. These two copies are by far the most likely copies of my data to be compromised. For that reason... I only keep my media on the HDDs. IMHO, the cloud data is orders of magnitude more secure.

/Jim

 

I currently use Backblaze, and am very happy with it. It integrates very well with the OS, and I don't even notice it is running..which is kind of the idea isn't it. Having it all work automatically in the background is ideal.

I didn't really like the interface for crashplan, and the speed of it greatly depends on which server you are allocated (although it is possible to swap.) I did like the fact that you could back up multiple computers on a single plan, and you can't really argue with the price.

At the end of the day, I the main thing is to have (at least) two back ups in two different locations. I could have all the hard drives in the world in my apartment, but it makes no difference if an earthquake/tsunami takes it out. (unfortunately, quite a high probability.)

Buy a external hard drive (or two), and use time machine/CCC etc, and have somewhere backed up in the cloud.

I would guess that your data is far far safer encrypted in the cloud than it is on a disk in your house (I'm talking about theft here)..so unless you are unduly worried, there is no reason not to use some cloud based service. Certainly the prices have dropped significantly in the last few years that it is now a no-brainer.