What's your backup solution? Offsite?

Random

Like everyone I could probably live without my PC. Most of the files / programs / etc really aren't that irreplacable etc.

I do have a slowly growing gallery of photos and videos from various trips and holidays. I'd like to hang on to these.

Currently everything weighs in about 10gig depending on what I chose to backup.

I don't mind a couple of DVDs, I don't mind a hard drive.. that's not my problem.

My problem is that my backup always seem to end up sitting on my desk next to my PC or something.

Where can I put my DVDs or hard drive so stuff is backed up offsite? I don't have the CIA database here .. but if I'm gonna back something up I'd like to know it's actually backed up.

What would you suggest? Do you backup online? (my upload is crap), do you backup offsite in a locker at your local train station?

Any thoughts?

Thanks !


++ edit - mods, on second thoughts this might be better off in another forum as it's maybe not Windows specific?

watty

No friends or relatives that will mind backups?

Random

Not really anyone I'd want to leave them with no.

Capt'n Midnight

encryt it first

Stuxnet

i have all my photos backed up at flickr, if thats any good too ya
other then that, a small external hd is handy

mick.fr

Yeah I'd say use online hosting. You can use existing solutions or use your own based on Gallery (Online gallery program which is free) but you would need your own hosting (Free quids a month).

watty

flickr is NOT a backup solution. It's a vanity Publishing solution, as is Gallery.

Hosting is from about €20 a year.

If you don't need public bandwidth (i.e. just for backups, not a web site) you can get packages with large storage and no MySQL and lower speed.

unnameduser

with online backup the first upload will be slow - but afterwards it would be incremental so your slow upload should not really be an issue.

Random

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

encryt it first

I'm trying to balance security against reliability and ease of access to backups down the road. I guess I could look at security and really should be on the list, but what sorta solution am I gonna use will depend on which direction I go.

BOBBY wrote: »

i have all my photos backed up at flickr, if thats any good too ya
other then that, a small external hd is handy

I don't rate that much to be honest. While the photos are just regular holiday photos I don't trust flickr to do anything other than lose them or show them to the world by mistake.

mick.fr wrote: »

Yeah I'd say use online hosting. You can use existing solutions or use your own based on Gallery (Online gallery program which is free) but you would need your own hosting (Free quids a month).

It's not all photos. I have various files and stuff too that I'd want to backup. I'd like a backup solution to be reliable so free wouldn't be the hosting I'd be going for. Gallery style application wouldn't work because it's really an online display thing. I just want somewhere to backup files really.

watty wrote: »

flickr is NOT a backup solution. It's a vanity Publishing solution, as is Gallery.

Hosting is from about €20 a year.

If you don't need public bandwidth (i.e. just for backups, not a web site) you can get packages with large storage and no MySQL and lower speed.

Have you used ay that you would suggest? with regard to your €20/year I'm assuming you just mean regular hosting rather than something directly towards people who want to back up etc?

unnameduser wrote: »

with online backup the first upload will be slow - but afterwards it would be incremental so your slow upload should not really be an issue.

That's a fair point, I guess I'd need to look into applications etc which would make this a feasible, easy option.

Other things I'm thinking about are renting a locker in one of these storage places .. but they're all bloody gym sized lockers when all I'd need really is a drawer.

ressem

Amazon's S3 online storage would be an option. Charges are pretty low, though they reserve the option of canceling the service with 60 days notice.

So you'd bee looking at about $2 for the first upload then $2 per month for 10 GB. You would be charged to download the data also.

I haven't noticed any other catches.

There are 3rd party apps which allow you to transfer files back and forth.


Storage

* $0.180 per GB – first 50 TB / month of storage used
Data Transfer

* $0.100 per GB – all data transfer in
* $0.170 per GB – first 10 TB / month data transfer out
Requests

* $0.012 per 1,000 PUT, COPY, POST, or LIST requests

Sea08

In regards to the online backup idea, why not try the Windows Live Skydrive thingy.

It's free, all you need is a windows live account (also free) and I think you get 25Gb of online storage.

Think google have something similar aswell.

johnmd

Loads and loads of offsite backup services out there for home and business users.
Few quick points.
1.If your upload speed is rubbish then some of the providers will ship you an external USB drive to dump onto first and then upload onto the data center,so from this point on you only do incrementals,or the changes in your backup.
2.Choose a provider based in Ireland if its for your business,try recovering 50gigs over a crappy dsl line in a disaster!.If its just for home and your not all that bothered about the speed of recovery then some of the cheaper providers will be fine.
3.Pricing ranges from cheap and nasty to less cheap and less....
just make sure where your backup is being stored is on reliable hardware and ideally replicated for redundancy.


I sell a lot of this stuff for a living in case you hadn't already guessed,we only do business no home stuff :-(

Mozy,Carbonite etc etc... Google for loads more.

JordanDC

Ive been using Servage for my backups. They have a program called WebDrive that appears on your computer as a folder. You can then use HTACCESS for the hosting account to secure it. Cots about €7/month. Maybe not the best, but very handy.

LoGiE

Why not get a usb HD and a small fire safe to store it in?

Overheal

LoGiE wrote: »

Why not get a usb HD and a small fire safe to store it in?

that added advantage of storing other worthwhile possessions too, like baby books, important documents, or any such irreplaceable materials.

Random

LoGiE wrote: »

Why not get a usb HD and a small fire safe to store it in?

Expense. It's still on-site.

Capt'n Midnight

Random wrote: »

Expense. It's still on-site.

Lidl had some for €40-€50
but you really do need offsite to be safe

Random

Expense on-site to have it bolted into something etc is what I ment. Otherwise they'll take that along with the PC

IIIAcHmEdIII

get an external hdd they will be comeing out in lidl soon enough i think and they are cheap and resuable