Long-term data backup solution?

[bort]

A question for all the techies out there:

I'm looking for a long-term data storage solution for all my personal files (pictures, music, etc...). My wife and I each have an external hard drive, which is a good start. But I'm also worried about fire, flood, etc... so I want a remote solution.

I've heard (a little) about Mozy, but its been hard to find *real* reviews about these services.

Help?

[Thomas Maurice Booth]

Not offsite storage or anything, but have you considered doing the external hard drive and purchasing a fire safe which could be bolted to the floor - thus making theft, water, fire, etc. not an issue. I have a 1TB hard drive and a fire safe that I have used for several years. With the safe not only is my computer backup safe, but my other important documents and possessions are as well.

Just a though...

TMB

[bort]

Good idea and not something I've ruled out. But also, I'm a little lazy and I know I wouldn't pull the thing out to constantly update it like I'd like to.

[TubaTodd]

When it comes to data storage, I am not a huge fan of backing up my files to online storage services. It's something about a company having my stuff on their equipment. There's a "big brother" factor that I've never liked. If you don't mind it, you can try Dropbox. You can get a free 2GB account to try.

https://www.dropbox.com/

The downside of online storage is that you're limited by the upload speed of your ISP which could result in slow backups. My ISP limits my upload speed to 512kb/s. Terrible for backups. The firesafe idea sounds pretty good. If you want to do "offsite" storage here are some economical choices.

1. I'm sure a good bit of your data won't "change" like pictures, documents and misc files that you can archive. These files can be backed up cheaply and easily to DVD disks. Burn the files to DVD's and store them at a family member's house, at work, safe deposit box, friend's house, etc.
2. You can purchase a second external hard drive and have a rotation system. Backup your data to both drives. Keep one offsite (see previous list) and one at home. Periodically, "rotate" your media. Swap the drives out regularly. Your data on the offsite drive will be "older" than the one you currently have, but it will only be as old as the last backup.
3. If you want online backup, but don't want a monthly fee or a limited amount of storage or you want to avoid "big brother," you can create your own colocation. There was a great blog post (http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2009/07/ ... ni10v.html) about how this dude bought a Dell Mini 9 (netbook) and an external hard drive and stored it at his parents house. This gave him online storage he felt confident in. You could probably achieve the same goal with a prebuilt NAS on at his parent's house. You would setup a VPN connection from his house to his parent's house and access the NAS as if it was on his own network. If I was going to do online storage, that is how I would do it.

[MartyNeilan]

I don't put a lot of confidence into external harddrives; I have seen way too many of them crash. ANY harddrive will ultimately crash; it is just a matter of how long. The external ones are subject to more shock and vibration as they are moved around.

I administer the backups where I work. Tape used to be the way to go. You may be able to find a used DLT tape drive on the bay, then you will have to get a SCSI card installed.
We currently use an LTO library (faster, greater capacity than DLT but more expensive) and send about a dozen tapes offsite every week. When the tapes come back, they are placed in a firesafe, rated for magnet media and not just paper.

We have a second tier of data recovery that you may want to consider. We have a fiber connection that goes to a co-location across town that replicates all of our mission critical data on our production servers in realtime. You can do the same thing on a smaller and cheaper scale - there are websites that for a monthly or annual fee will allow you to archive data on their site.

Cheapest? Determine what is absolutely critical, burn it on a few DVD-R's, and leave them at work/friend's house/relative's place, etc.
Most average people are not going to need to backup a Terrabyte of data; it is probably a few gig worth of pictures, music files, documents, etc. that you really can't live without.

** Looks like Todd beat me to it...

[Wyvern]

I have used http://www.Humyo.com for the last year and found it really great. You can have 10Gb of storage free, but a subscription brings benefits, such as automatic back-up of data and 100Gb of space.

It works like I create a document on my desktop PC. Immediately on saving, Humyo will automatically detect and back-up to my on-line storage, then when I start my laptop, it will detect new file added and upload it onto its hard disk as well. Then if I make a change to the document on my laptop, it will up-date the on-line copy and then the desktop PC, so both PCs are synchronised. If I store photos, or recordings on Humyo I want to share, then I can make those specific documents 'public' and send others a link.

On my own PC, Humyo appears as another drive in 'My Computer', or I can access files over encrypted connection from any internet connected PC browser using my personal log-on.

[dmmorris]

My wife and I both do quite a bit of digital photography. I run two 1TB external drives. one for primary and one as a back-up. I do weekly backups using backup4all. They offer a lot of latitude in configuring how and when the backups are automated. Pretty easy.

I live on a hill and the office is on the second floor, so I feel ok with floods, but other acts of God (fire, wind, lightening)...... I really should have a remote drive at my office. With the low cost of TB drives I really don't have an excuse.

[TubaTodd]

Here's a recent article worth reading
http://www.osnews.com/story/22598/Stori ... _and_Silly

BTW, I read this site (http://www.osnews.com" target="_blank) daily. Lots of interesting tech news.

[Wyvern]

Here's a recent article worth reading
http://www.osnews.com/story/22598/Stori ... _and_Silly

Interesting point of view, but if you take personal responsibility to back up the data onto an external drive it does NOT protect you against fire destroying, or thief taking your computer equipment.

Yes, an on-line storage facility could somehow loose your data (although unlikely), if what they are storing is a back-up of data on your computer, you still have the original. To loose both simultaneously would be highly unlikely barring a major wide area disaster.

I personally use a belt and braces approach of backing-up on-line AND to an external hard drive.

[Rick Denney]

I know several who are using the online backup storage services, with no complaints. Use something that requires a subscription so that you have an implied warranty.

But I would use this only as a backup to your normal backup procedures. If you have sensitive personal files, put them in their own folder and don't back them up.

I use a 1-TB network attached storage and the ShadowProtect software to make monthly full and daily incremental backups of both computers on my network that hold photographic files. I paid real money for ShadowProtect, and have found it much more reliable and less troublesome than cheapie software like Ghost (which was good until Norton got a hold of it). These backups are full image backups, and sufficient to completely recreate the machine in case of catastrophic failure.

They don't protect my image files against the house burning down, but then my negatives and transparencies aren't protected from that, either.

I am now using Verizon Wireless Broadband to get high-speed access from home, and there is no way I could fit online backups into the 5GB/month that service includes.

If Blu-Ray drives become cheap and reliable, I'll probably get one for occasional deep backups for off-site storage.

Rick "who has survived several computer and drive failures without loss of data, knock on wood" Denney

[TubaTodd]

More food for thought
http://www.osnews.com/story/22603/You_H ... et_Over_It

[BVD Press]

http://www.sugarsync.com/index.new.html

Best I have found and really flexible as you can send files from the IPhone, Blackberry, etc.! And also share certain folders with others...