Is iCloud all I need for back up?

[dloreski]

I have a 13" MBP and an 11" MBA.
I have very little data to back up, but I need to make sure I don't lose it.
Basically I have about 400MB of photos in iphoto.
From my reading, it seems that icloud will safely store this and will sync them and update them for both computers as things change.
The important things that I need backed up are about 20MB of Word documents and 10MB of PDF files.
Will icloud back those up, and if so, will it keep updating the files as they change?
Thanks!
- Dave

 

[GGJstudios]

I always recommend backing up to an external drive, no matter what online backups you have. You may need to access a backup when you have no internet connection. I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable clone of my drive, so if my drive ever crashes, I can immediately boot up from the backup drive.

 

[old-wiz]

never ever have a single source of backup.
And what if you need the files and your internet connection is down?

 

[hafr]

I have a 13" MBP and an 11" MBA.
I have very little data to back up, but I need to make sure I don't lose it.
Basically I have about 400MB of photos in iphoto.
From my reading, it seems that icloud will safely store this and will sync them and update them for both computers as things change.
The important things that I need backed up are about 20MB of Word documents and 10MB of PDF files.
Will icloud back those up, and if so, will it keep updating the files as they change?
Thanks!
- Dave

I always recommend backing up to an external drive, no matter what online backups you have. You may need to access a backup when you have no internet connection. I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable clone of my drive, so if my drive ever crashes, I can immediately boot up from the backup drive.

A part from the obvious benefits of having a physical disk with a backup close to the computer, you could also look at having multiple online solutions. Wuala, Dropbox, Syncplicity, SpiderOak, Google Drive, SkyDrive are just some of several options that will be invisible and seamless solutions for you.

They all offer more than enough space for your need, all for free, and they're pretty well established. Personally, I have all my documents in the Dropbox folder, then I'm using Syncplicity as a secondary online backup for them, together with a Time Machine backup on a hard drive connected to my router.

This also help me cross platform, since I can install Dropbox and/or Syncplicity on any Windows, Linux or OS X machine and have pretty much instant access to all of my important documents. Plus, they have apps for both iOS and Android, meaning I can access them from most smartphones, even other people's smartphones.

These are things you can't do with iCloud or a local backup.

I see it as the best solution. Because hey, there is no point in choosing when you can have it all

 

[scottfreeman]

I'd advise against relying on a single service to back up your data if you want to be sure it's safe. You never know what's going to happen!

Personally, I suggest Dropbox. You'll get more than enough free space for your needs, and it backs up without you doing anything. You'll need to move your content in to the "Dropbox" folder, but this is very easy to do.

All my documents, photos and files are stored in my Dropbox folder, and I'm confident that if anything happens to my computers, I can pick up from where I left off.

 

[bullydog457]

I recently got a Time Capsule and have been extremely pleased with it. I agree that you should always have things backed up in multiple locations, but trying to use multiple services to take advantage of the small free storage allowances, or paying a monthly fee didn't sound real attractive to me.

I get hourly back ups for the entire household without having to worry about it and then I also save the really important stuff manually to other locations - but there's not a ton of space required for those things.