Master Index of Archived Threads


Data backup

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jul 11 2010 07:24 AM

Hey, dumb computer related question. Anyone use online backup storage for their home PC like Mozy or Carbonite? The only thing I really need to back up are some writing files, but mostly photos and music. We were burned by a shitty external hard drive that died on us about 6 months ago (FU, Maxtor) and we haven't come up with an alternative since, but the PC by now is slow as shit, burdened (I think) by hundreds of photographs & other such files in need of a new home. We would need a backup that would allow us to safely delete all the stuff locally but still access it when needed. We could get a new x hard drive but feel like our last purchase was a waste of $$, since it was basically killed by a simple power outage. Carbonite and Mozy cost $55 + a year from what I can see. Other suggestions? What are you guys using?

metirish Jul 11 2010 08:20 AM Re: Data backup

I have a photoshop account with a 20 gig storage, my PC crashed last year but fortunatly I had my music AND pictures on an old 60 Gig iPod, I also had them saved to CD"s.....the ones I wanted to keep anyway. Every picture I take and keep gets uploaded to photoshop and photobucket, I go through them and keep what I want and they get uploaded to Flickr......and then I use Snapfish to get those images in print, often for 1c a print. I have heard of both sites you mentioned and know of a few pro photographers that use them.

Kong76 Jul 11 2010 08:22 AM Re: Data backup

I took the plunge about three months ago and got a 2TB network drive. My external drives were getting old and the thought of losing 7,000 songs and hundreds of video, pictures, etc. scared the bejeebus out of me. It's pretty cool, and since it's a network drive you can access it all over the place. It's also mirrored so that if one of the two drives fails you can hot swap the failed drive out while a copy of your stuff is still on the good drive. It's pretty geeky and expensive solution, but I'm happy so far with it. One thing people forget who are in our internet positions is that you have server space for your web-site(s). If you want to store documents and spread- sheets you can always make a folder on your web-server and ftp the stuff there from time to time. Not a great solution for music and video, but certainly a good way to have an off-site backup for office type stuff.

dgwphotography Jul 11 2010 08:39 AM Re: Data backup

I have a TB network drive, and I also back up all of my pictures each month on CDs (not DVDs).

Benjamin Grimm Jul 11 2010 08:44 AM Re: Data backup

You can store your photos on Kodak Gallery's website http://kodakgallery.com It's "free" in a way... you just need to buy some prints or other merchandise about once every year and a half.

Fman99 Jul 11 2010 02:15 PM Re: Data backup

I have an external USB hard drive (backing up to it using free software called SyncBack), and I back up my documents using free software called CrashPlan to back it all up to my old PC downstairs which is now a web server. I'm a bit excessive in this regard, but I work with PC's for a living and it's mostly fun for me to set up this kind of stuff. I also use Mozy's free 2 GB to store my more important documents (non-media) and have yet another copy of those.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jul 11 2010 04:08 PM Re: Data backup

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Most of my photos are also stored with picasa. And on CDs, but there was a ~3 month period between updates that went down with the external hard drive. I've looked into restoration but it's stupid expensive for a few photos. Fman -- Mozy free for 2 gigs? Forgive me but is 2 gigs a lot? And is Mozy easy for a retard like me to use?

themetfairy Jul 11 2010 05:09 PM Re: Data backup

I back up my photos on Flickr and an external hard drive (when I remember to run an update - usually once every few months). I back up documents on Google Docs, which has worked out well for me (granted, I don't have a lot of documents that I back up, and nothing of a truly confidential nature).

metirish Jul 11 2010 05:26 PM Re: Data backup

2 gigs is not a lot, I checked my PS 20gig storage and I have used just over 5 gigs....that = nearly 1600 images form a 10.2 megapixal camera....so 2 gigs would be somewhere around 500-700 as a rough estimate....but writing files would hardly be that big right?...so maybe that would be fine for you.

Kong76 Jul 11 2010 05:50 PM Re: Data backup

2GB isn't much at all, it's only about what would fit on 2 1/2 CD's.

Methead Jul 11 2010 06:15 PM Re: Data backup

"It's also mirrored so that if one of the two drives fails" This is what I've got. It's the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo. I've got it set up with 1TB drives now, but it's pretty simple to swap larger drives into it at some point (once the price drops). I really wanted something with more drives / more space, but this suits me fine at this point. The downside is, I don't have off-site backup for any stuff, but I have plenty of storage space for now.

Fman99 Jul 11 2010 07:32 PM Re: Data backup

[quote="John Cougar Lunchbucket":1nspz5lz] Fman -- Mozy free for 2 gigs? Forgive me but is 2 gigs a lot? And is Mozy easy for a retard like me to use?[/quote:1nspz5lz] It's pretty simple, you choose which folders you want Mozied and it runs once a day. Two GBs isn't going to store you a lot of photos/music/etc but I use it for actual documents, stuff that took time to make that I wouldn't have to want to reproduce. My images and media are all backed up to other drives in the house, that's good enough for me. I've been lucky, the last HD I had fail was just a week after I ran a CD backup.

Gwreck Jul 11 2010 08:50 PM Re: Data backup

I don't trust online backup, for both reliability and confidentiality reasons. Thanks for spooking me about my external hard drive, though, as I now have to burn several DVDs of the most critical stuff...

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jul 11 2010 09:27 PM Re: Data backup

Just be careful wrt the power cord on your ex hard drive. I am almost certain it getting unintentionally unplugged was a contributor to its frying. Of course it was just past the warantee date. I am installing the full monty version of Mozy now, with an online promo code and 2-year hitch it's only 89 buxx.

Methead Jul 12 2010 03:17 PM Re: Data backup

Out of curiosity, did you try taking the drive out of your old external and putting it into another drive enclosure? You can get a cheap drive enclosure at Staples just to see if the old drive really dead or just mostly dead. There's a controller card inside the drive enclosure... and sometimes that goes bad but the drive itself is fine. Happened to me more than once.