Online back up services

hethmar

Considering backing up all my docs etc to an online storage facility - is there a simple and reliable service please?

Money_Grabber13579

Have you tried microsoft live skydrive? It's free, but you have to upload everything yourself.

Unless you're looking for something that auto backs up online like Norton online backup? (Which is not the best to go for since it's so expensive)

fuzzball172

i use carbonite... cheap and easy to use

danmanchester

Getdropbox is really good, 2GB free space and no file size limits that I know of, Skydrive - as mentioned above - is also another good one but limits individual files sizes to 50mb I think.

But one I've been trying out lately is Windows Live Mesh it has 5GB free online storage and no file size limits (although beta at the moment..so that could change in future re file size limits). You need a Hotmail/Windows live email address to login with.

Taffybiker

Online storage is a good idea - but personally I prefer to keep my own backups. Even a reputable online storage company can be hacked or perhaps employ someone who turns out to be less than honest. I don't have anything to hide, but I don't fancy the idea of my files being available to anyone/everyone without my consent.

Example - Facebook: Okay, it is a social site but in at least one case that I know of for certain, the media have "stolen" pictures and published them along with their story, without the consent of the person involved. I know this person and that's how I know the truth.

isofa

This cropped up last week, large discussion do a search.
Mozy is good.

If you are worried about security, encrypt your files, I encrypt everything I store on-line personally on my PC first, before uploading it to an online service.

As for FB, I put a clear copyright on all images uploaded, and make it clear in any text that the image is (c) to me, if the media was to use one of these images, they are in direct breach of copyright law and it'd be a straightforward case for a lawyer.

I also watermark my images invisibly too, I'm a photographer so this is of key important to me.

hethmar

I tried skydive but it seemed very long winded to me. I dont know what Ive done, but somehow, trying to save my docs - and then transfer them to skydive or cd has ended up with several copies of each doc on here So you see, I need something really simple to use and automatic back up would be great. One thing that does worry me with all these services is how viable the companies are that offer them, I mean if they disappear so does your work doesnt it.

Money_Grabber13579

hethmar wrote: »

I tried skydive but it seemed very long winded to me. I dont know what Ive done, but somehow, trying to save my docs - and then transfer them to skydive or cd has ended up with several copies of each doc on here So you see, I need something really simple to use and automatic back up would be great. One thing that does worry me with all these services is how viable the companies are that offer them, I mean if they disappear so does your work doesnt it.

How did you back them up to skydrive? Did you use internet explorer?

When backing up to skydrive, just pick a folder that you want to store the file in (you can create a new folder if you wish), then click to add files. Choose the file(s) you want to add, and then click upload. All you have to do is wait for it to finish! It is important that if you make changes to a doc, you'll have to delete the old one first before uploading the new one, or you'll have 2 copies, which aren't exactly the same. Maybe this is whats happened to you?

If you're wanting a service though that replaces the files that you change, unfortunately skydrive isn't the thing for you.

I am trying out live mesh, mentioned above, and it might be more the thing you're after? I haven't completely figured it out yet, but from my understanding, it's just like an external hard drive, that synchronises itself with the files and folders on your computer. So if I've understood right, if you change a copy, then the one on live mesh should update.

hethmar

Many thanks, but Im such a dummy, I dont know how to do a lot of this.

Ive just bitten the bullet and signed up to Dell Datasafe online, figuring if its tied into my Dell puter it MAY be more reliable/simple. HOWEVER, it is only 29% complete backing up files and tells me another 6 hours and 39 minutes to finish? Is this normal? Ive only got about 4 or 5 GB of docs and photos?

kwikbreaks

Standard ADSL upstream only runs at about 400k bits per second of data after overheads so 4GB of data is going to take quite a while to upload.

hethmar

Many thanks, I didnt know if it were normal - sounds like it is. Surely it doesnt go through this performance every time it backs up does it? Does it just back up anything new after the first big upload?