Low Cost Online Backup

aardvarkuk

Mmm online backup, does anyone really know what happens to their data :think:

superscaper

Patrick_Harvey wrote: »

The reason I chose ZuuBackup for my son's laptop is that it does it automatically at regular scheduled intervals. It was a case of knowing his data wouldn't get backed up if he had to do it himself. I think it only backs up files that have changed since the last time.

I'll add it to the backup sticky as a UK alternative, I suppose the whole point of backup is not relying on one thing so it'd be hypocritical of me to only uggest US based companies for paid online backup.

superscaper

aardvarkuk wrote: »

Mmm online backup, does anyone really know what happens to their data :think:

I believe it gets routed to Elbonia:

Patrick_Harvey

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice - it's always valuable to get useful info I would not have found out for myself.

Patrick_Harvey

Spoke to my son over the weekend and he said the reason he thought ZuuBackup was good (besides my offer to pay for it!) was because his data is totally secure. He says that the Zuu people can't even access it if he loses his password.

superscaper

Patrick_Harvey wrote: »

Spoke to my son over the weekend and he said the reason he thought ZuuBackup was good (besides my offer to pay for it!) was because his data is totally secure. He says that the Zuu people can't even access it if he loses his password.

That's also the same as the others though. Mozy, the one I use has the opition of either using Mozy's own encryption key or using your own. And I remember Carbonite also used your own password. I've looked at zuubackup's features and I really can't see anything particularly unique about them.

isofa

You could always encyrpt all your files first on your computer, before running an on-line backup tool too. So you control the encryption process on your local computer, long before you look at uploading the files to a foreign server.

markchadwick

superscaper wrote: »

I'll add it to the backup sticky as a UK alternative, I suppose the whole point of backup is not relying on one thing so it'd be hypocritical of me to only uggest US based companies for paid online backup.

Indeed, which is why I would also suggest to add another layer of protection against your son's most critical files instead of relying on one backup solution. I have my home folder structured into [Documents, Photos, Music, Application Data, Software, Temporary and Archive]. I find this approach works well for me as my documents folder is easily isolated from the bigger folders and tends to be within 2GB. I then use Mozy to back this up in the background (along with other backup strategies) so I have multiple redundancy in the event of the worst happening. The other folders that tend to be larger than 2GB can then be backed up using more size-specific robust backup solutions.

I've found Mozy to be very kind to the system's resources and it can be throttled for bandwidth control too. Obviously, your son can use his own enryption key to protect his files from snooping eyes. This way he has multiple redundancy and he won't even notice Mozy running the background. Just thought I'd add my $0.02.

superscaper

isofa wrote: »

You could always encyrpt all your files first on your computer, before running an on-line backup tool too. So you control the encryption process on your local computer, long before you look at uploading the files to a foreign server.

Yep I already mentioned Truecrypt. If you don't trust the company with passwords then can you really trust them not to put a backdoor into their software? Safest thing is definitely to encrypt it yourself first and then the only security you need to worry about is that the company keeps the data intact.