I'm not disputing the rest of your post, but did you ever think that the reason Mozy takes 3 weeks versus your hard drive which takes less than 60 minutes is because your internet upload speed is a tiny fraction of USB/Firewire transfer speeds? The time it takes to back up to an online service is dependent on your internet service.
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Online Storage - MOZY , IDRIVE , CARBONITE , other
- Thread starter dcl
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I'm not disputing the rest of your post, but did you ever think that the reason Mozy takes 3 weeks versus your hard drive which takes less than 60 minutes is because your internet upload speed is a tiny fraction of USB/Firewire transfer speeds? The time it takes to back up to an online service is dependent on your internet service.
Most interesting thread.
It think that there is no one best solution. I also believe that the best solution may be a combination of different concepts.
Right now I'm doing the following:
- Clone my HD to external HDs on a weekly basis. I rotate 3 external HDs.
- Carbonite for continuous backup just in case. I have about 150GB out of 300GB backed up.
- MobileMe to archive important documents. Things that don't change. Priceless pictures that I have.
Cloud based storage is exploding as some have already said in this thread. I would like to find a service that does both syncing and archiving files. To me, you need both functions.
Also, until the Internet gets faster, I need a local solution. Also, with my external HD clones, I can immediately boot up from my most recent external clone. Very convenient.
I wish Apple would consider a backup service for purchased content on iTMS. Instead of worrying about backing up music, movies, etc., the individual would purchase insurance from Apple. That way if the user looses their content on a HD, they can re-download the content for free if they have the insurance.
It think that there is no one best solution. I also believe that the best solution may be a combination of different concepts.
Agree.
Right now I'm doing the following:
- Clone my HD to external HDs on a weekly basis. I rotate 3 external HDs.
- Carbonite for continuous backup just in case. I have about 150GB out of 300GB backed up.
- MobileMe to archive important documents. Things that don't change. Priceless pictures that I have.
Cloud based storage is exploding as some have already said in this thread. I would like to find a service that does both syncing and archiving files. To me, you need both functions.
Also, until the Internet gets faster, I need a local solution. Also, with my external HD clones, I can immediately boot up from my most recent external clone. Very convenient.
I wish Apple would consider a backup service for purchased content on iTMS. Instead of worrying about backing up music, movies, etc., the individual would purchase insurance from Apple. That way if the user looses their content on a HD, they can re-download the content for free if they have the insurance.
If you sign up for cloud based backup and are surprised that it takes days or weeks to complete, then you haven't done your due diligence.
Don't embarrass yourself further please.
As a Mozy user, I've had my fair share of complaints with software stability, but to compare internet based backup to a local hard drive is just plain ignorant of the speeds expected in such a situation. They are two totally different animals!
Don't embarrass yourself further please.
As a Mozy user, I've had my fair share of complaints with software stability, but to compare internet based backup to a local hard drive is just plain ignorant of the speeds expected in such a situation. They are two totally different animals!
it's a lot cheaper to buy a few hard disks than to pay for this online crap which i think is a scam created by seagate and WD
$100 for a 1TB hard drive
the same storage will cost you $150 a month from Amazon or Mozy. only makes sense if you're backing up 100GB or so
or buy a time capsule every year since they seem to self destruct every 18 months. still cheaper than online
I mostly use Windows but this will work for Mac's as well. make your own folder and don't use the built in short cuts from Apple or MS. in the root of my hard drive I have a folder called backup. in there i put all my files. Itunes goes into c:\itunes. a folder for every type of file. every week or so i manually copy the data to another hard drive. all my data is in one place and easy to back up
$100 for a 1TB hard drive
the same storage will cost you $150 a month from Amazon or Mozy. only makes sense if you're backing up 100GB or so
or buy a time capsule every year since they seem to self destruct every 18 months. still cheaper than online
I mostly use Windows but this will work for Mac's as well. make your own folder and don't use the built in short cuts from Apple or MS. in the root of my hard drive I have a folder called backup. in there i put all my files. Itunes goes into c:\itunes. a folder for every type of file. every week or so i manually copy the data to another hard drive. all my data is in one place and easy to back up
If your house burns down, floods, or gets robbed, then what? If all of your data is backed up on hard drives you keep in your house, you're SOL.
that's all well and good, but what if your house floods? or catches fire? u know.. you need off site storage...
assuming you use my folder strategy, burn a set of DVD's every month and send it to friends or family or rent a safe deposit box. keep a set at work. or buy an external hard drive and keep it away from the house and encrypt it.
I think <100GB is Ok to pay, but anything approaching current hard drive sizes it's cheaper to buy your own. and the restore will take longer as well.
if you have critical data for work/clients than it's a different story. i would never trust optical storage. my favorite is LTO tape
if I was to use online it would me Mozy or Amazon. as someone mentioned Mozy is owned by EMC and they are a great company and everyone trusts them. Amazon's cloud is probably here to stay, but that is still up in the air. it's still a lot more expensive to use Elastic Cloud than buying your own hardware
I think <100GB is Ok to pay, but anything approaching current hard drive sizes it's cheaper to buy your own. and the restore will take longer as well.
if you have critical data for work/clients than it's a different story. i would never trust optical storage. my favorite is LTO tape
if I was to use online it would me Mozy or Amazon. as someone mentioned Mozy is owned by EMC and they are a great company and everyone trusts them. Amazon's cloud is probably here to stay, but that is still up in the air. it's still a lot more expensive to use Elastic Cloud than buying your own hardware
Mozy is $5/month and IMHO... the best deal going.
I have been using it for 2 years on a PC and it has been rock solid. I am now migrating off the PC onto an iMac. (I have been using MBP/MBA for a while). I chose Mozy over the others because it is a wholy owned subsidiary of EMC which is considered by many to be the #1 name in storage period.
In my opinion... any backup strategy that is not 100% automatic is fundamentally flawed. I use dual independent automatic backup.
1) Mozy.com for secure offsite backup of my data files (currently 130 GB)
2) Time Machine/Time Capsule for local full machine backup
Mozy gives me safety in the event the unthinkable happens... and TM is great in case a hard drive crashes... or if I need file versioning.
I also use Mobile Me to keep my 3 Mac's and my iPhone in sync... but that is NOT a backup solution.
/Jim
Carbonite works well and also costs about $5 per month for unlimited storage.
I currently have about 150GB working on 300GB of backup.
So far I'm leaning heavily towards CrashPlan... are there any caveats to be aware of here?
I eliminated Carbonite for a bunch of reasons (not very Mac friendly, faked reviews, evil spokespeople, no shipping external HD for restore).
I am this close to eliminating Mozy over speed issues and concerns over the reliability of their restore process (anyone have comments on this?)
I really liked BackBlaze until I realized they had a file size cap (4GB) which is too small for me (want to backup VMs, DVD rips, large archives)
JungleDisk is just too expensive.
So... any caps or issues with Crash Plan I should be aware of?
I eliminated Carbonite for a bunch of reasons (not very Mac friendly, faked reviews, evil spokespeople, no shipping external HD for restore).
I am this close to eliminating Mozy over speed issues and concerns over the reliability of their restore process (anyone have comments on this?)
I really liked BackBlaze until I realized they had a file size cap (4GB) which is too small for me (want to backup VMs, DVD rips, large archives)
JungleDisk is just too expensive.
So... any caps or issues with Crash Plan I should be aware of?
I started using CrashPlan after my main laptops hard drive melted down during a business trip half way across the country....came home to find that Time Capsule had stopped retaining information eight weeks earlier (dont ask, we still dont know why since the little Time Machine whirly bob spun hourly, with no error messages).
The folks at CrashPlan are easy to work with, on top of their game, and have provided what I think is a terrific fit for my needs. Am backing up my main laptop (approx. 150 Gb of data) daily, and have yet to hit a snag. The prices were reasonable too.
I went with the CrashPlan+ program. Also ponied up for them to ship a 1TB hard drive to me for the initial backup since I was about to leave for two weeks in Asia (and to avoid ticking off Comcast yet again...they really hate home offices who do more than check email twice a day). Was worth the added expense to me, but might not be for others.
Their servers are stored in the underground vaults of an old bank building in downtown Minneapolis, by the way. Talk about secure.
As an FYI, I also use Dropbox for 32 GB worth of critical business data I need to sync across multiple computers. Am also still using (a now functional) Time Capsule for local storage, but am shopping around for additional offsite space to store 50 GB worth of archived photos and documents still on an external hard drive (not backed up anywhere, yikes). For that, I want non-syncing, non-auto-anything storage...essentially, a virtual file cabinet...but cant locate a good solution that doesnt cost an arm and a leg for tons of services I dont need or want.
Backblaze all the way
I use Backblaze for three macs. I am a photographer shooting raw files and video and Backblaze was the cheapest that allowed for raw files. They are just under $50/year per machine and that compares with Carbonite and Mozy. The process is seamless and backup simple. If you don't need raw files Mozy offers 2GB for free.
I use Backblaze for three macs. I am a photographer shooting raw files and video and Backblaze was the cheapest that allowed for raw files. They are just under $50/year per machine and that compares with Carbonite and Mozy. The process is seamless and backup simple. If you don't need raw files Mozy offers 2GB for free.
iDrive has a family plan that allows up to 5 computers and 500gb for $15/month. I use iDrive on all my windows machines, I don't have a mac yet but if/when I get one I'll use it there too, encryption issues or not.
I did not like the mozy software at all.
I did not like the mozy software at all.