I'm looking for an offsite backup solution as an additional failsafe for my documents and iTunes library.

Since I have two on-site backup solutions in use currently this system would only be a WORST case scenario only. I have no need for versioning, as my two on-site systems provide this and I will most likely only update the offsite backup weekly.

What experiences have you had? I'm looking at something like Mozy or Carbonite due to the necessiry to store 1TB of data at this time.

1/19/2011 9:19:56 PM

mozy is pretty great

1/19/2011 9:54:42 PM

iron mountain

1/19/2011 10:18:45 PM

I had Carbonite. It was good I suppose. I didn't really use it or have a need fo rit.

1/19/2011 10:20:46 PM

+1 for mozy

1/19/2011 10:26:04 PM

Backblaze is where it's at. Makes mozy look like some basement hacks put it together (obviously, in-my-opinion, as of about 6 months ago when it was tested.)

Take a peek in their blog: http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/


I don't use them any more (I'm setting up sync with the network drive here and dads house) but would still highly recommend.


:::EDIT:::



[Edited on January 20, 2011 at 9:27 PM. Reason : that's CRAZY.]

1/20/2011 9:25:59 PM

You may also want to consider the repair process should something go down. With mozy and most others you'll be downloading everything back to your computer over your internet connection. Backblaze offers to overnight you a USB hard drive with all your files on it. For a few gig's that's no problem, but we create data so fast backblaze had a hard time keeping up (some days we'd go through 10+GB.)

For reference the drobo attached to my machine has about 1.6TB of data on it - and that doesn't count the drives in the machine itself. Even pulling 1TB of data back on a 10Mbit connection you're looking at around 10 days. And that's if TWC doesn't cap your connection when you hit like 10GB - if they throttle you it will take all month. Right now in it's current state my computer would take close to 11 days to restore, and that's if I drive it to work and run it 24/7 on the 20Mbit feed.

Also of note: Mozy allows multiple computers on the same account. Backblaze is $5/computer - not $5/account (per month.)

1/20/2011 10:16:08 PM

i've been meaning to back up my computer life for some time now but have a few questions

don't mean to hijack the thread but maybe it will help the original question posed as well

i have a mac that is about to be 5 years old in april. i've made some upgrades to it myself but know it will either die or need to be replaced in a few years. so with this in mind i want to make sure i choose a backup method that will make the transition to a new computer as easy as possible

the MAIN concern for me are my photos. i use iphoto and have over 12,000 photos that have ALL been painstakingly face & location tagged as well as put into folders exactly the way i want

if i get a new laptop in a few years, is there a way for me to back up iphoto to make these changes transfer?

next is music, i am not sure how much of a concern this is. im sure it's easier than photos but my music isn't as critical as my photos

documents, this is whatever. the only document of importance i have is my resume and i can transfer a handful of files easily enough

now for backup methods... i do back up my photos (by folder only) on 2 external hard drives. if something happened tomorrow i could put all my photos onto a new computer using that but thats my back up back up. i'd like to conserve my face & location tags i've worked so hard on within iphoto

i've done some research and http://www.crashplan.com has caught my eye

also some additional info.. my bf has a mac as well and is pretty good at destroying things. it would be handy to get their "family" back up and back his shit up as well. his would be easier to manage with a simple external hard drive but in reality, an auto-back up he never has to think of is more fitted to his lifestyle

what says you tdub?

quick summary-- what is the best (if any) way to back up my iphoto library with face & location tags if i ever needed to restore my laptop or upgrade to a new laptop?

1/20/2011 10:38:25 PM

^ That looks cool...

I wish their documentation wasn't so sparse. Hopefully in the next week I'll be able to test it out on a test run for a torrent network we're building to compare speeds.

[Edited on January 20, 2011 at 10:51 PM. Reason : Check your iPhoto file size. Some companies limit filesize to 4GB due to their internal filesystems]

1/20/2011 10:50:36 PM

its def over 4gb

and stupid question...how do i check the file size?

1/20/2011 11:21:04 PM

^ You can use Windows Live mesh to do what CrashPlan does, except it works fucking beautifully

And Live Mesh works on PC's and Macs. http://explore.live.com/windows-live-mesh?os=other

1/20/2011 11:54:10 PM

[user] wwwebsurfer[/user] thanks for your feedback, I am definitely using BackBlaze now, even though I'm on AT&T DSL, the knowledge that if I need it they'll ship a hard drive (or drives) is great.

Luckily I don't have a lot of data changes, less than 2GB a week on average, so I think my DSL connection should keep up.

1/21/2011 6:27:46 AM

Quote :

"Makes mozy look like some basement hacks put it together"

funny you say that, because that's what backblaze was.

1/21/2011 8:01:50 AM

If you just want an additional layer of protection, do what I do and just make your own off-site backup. In my case I have a pair of external HDDs, one of which stays on my desk at home and the other on my desk at work.

My biggest concern is the photography collection, which has all my kids pictures and some weddings and thing I have shot for others. So what I do is have the off-site backup at work, the external backup at home, and Blu-ray discs burned backups in my safe deposit box. That is the best thing I could think of to completely cover my ass.

1/21/2011 8:11:34 AM

I googled for a while trying to remember backblaze.

1/21/2011 8:41:17 AM

Well, looks like Mozy is dumping the unlimited plan...

2/1/2011 4:59:50 PM

Quote :

"You can use Windows Live mesh to do what CrashPlan does, except it works fucking beautifully"

I don't know I had a guy at work today complaining about Mesh...he said it choked the hell out of his TWC connection, and it went on for weeks before he identified the issue. But granted, that's only one story.

2/1/2011 5:26:03 PM

also, wolfy uses an apple and mesh doesnt run on OSX

2/1/2011 9:20:50 PM

Quote :

"I don't know I had a guy at work today complaining about Mesh...he said it choked the hell out of his TWC connection, and it went on for weeks before he identified the issue. But granted, that's only one story."

If you are doing massive folder/file changes on Mesh synced folders, yeah it's going to choke the shit out of your connection. If you sync 500gb of data to two remote machines, and you're on a TWC connection with 2mb uplink, it's going to hammer that shit for weeks to get everything synced.

You can correct this with QoS on the router, or you can turn off/schedule sync rather than having it in realtime mode.

2/1/2011 10:23:06 PM

^does mesh use hashtables? For instance if I put a huge file in a folder but needed it the next day and just copied it to the 2nd machine with a USB drive. Would it now sync doubly or MD5 or something and realize it's the same file?

2/1/2011 10:29:32 PM

damn. mozy did ditch the unlimited plan. glad I paid for a few years worth... but when it comes time to renew, I'll be jumping ship. I have 1TB backed up right now...

2/1/2011 10:38:44 PM

125GB cap? That's stupid. Why not just say $/GB?

I generate 125GB in a good month at work

2/1/2011 10:48:17 PM

http://community.mozy.com/t5/My-Account/New-MozyHome-Plans/td-p/16007

customers aren't happy! looks like a bunch will be leaving.

2/1/2011 10:55:01 PM

Quote :

"^does mesh use hashtables? For instance if I put a huge file in a folder but needed it the next day and just copied it to the 2nd machine with a USB drive. Would it now sync doubly or MD5 or something and realize it's the same file?"

No idea, but if you do the above, it won't duplicate the file (I've done this exact scenario before). It does take a decent time to process though if you sync two folders with overlapping contents (when I first set up sync for all my work stuff, it pegged the CPU on my laptop and desktop for almost 8 hours to work out the diffs, but hardly transferred anything over the network).

2/1/2011 10:58:23 PM

anyone know if crashplan throttles ?

2/2/2011 7:44:39 AM

^Don't know the answer to that, but I'm currently uploading to Crash plan at 1.6Mbps.

2/2/2011 9:05:32 PM

^how much have you backed up? how much are you going to?

many services start throttling at 100GB or larger

2/2/2011 9:49:54 PM

Round 1, only 50GB of photos. So far, about 20GB backed up, still running at 1.6Mbps.

Once that finishes, I have another 120GB+ to backup, but manually prioritizing.

I can't find anything on the web (in a quick search) of them throttling, but if I notice the speed drop, I'll update this thread.

2/3/2011 10:05:20 PM

Quote :

"If you just want an additional layer of protection, do what I do and just make your own off-site backup. In my case I have a pair of external HDDs, one of which stays on my desk at home and the other on my desk at work."

I did the same thing, except now I work from home and my office shares an exterior wall with my house

Those eSATA attached HDD docks are awesome for this. I have one tucked behind my monitor, every few weeks I swap it out with a second, identical drive which I put in a protective case (and used to carry to work). I think now I'm going to start sticking it in the fire safe or our storage shed.

2/3/2011 10:21:52 PM

NCSUWolfy, if you're on a mac and your OS is up to date, you should be using time machine. there is literally no better solution for local backup, and you will be able to move your stuff to a new computer when you get one without issue.

2/3/2011 10:29:17 PM

I'm definitely dumping mozy - they're effectively doubling my monthly price.

Probably switching to crashplan.com.

2/4/2011 1:10:45 AM

Found another called SwissDisk:

http://www.swissdisk.com/

2GB free or unlimited for 1 computer for $5 / month. They are using Nine Technology on the back end, a company I have just recently heard of but seems to have a pretty innovative offering for managed service providers.

2/5/2011 12:27:40 PM

Has anyone tried ^? That looks like a reasonably priced off site backup solution for our ~300gb...

I am still looking for a cheap place to stick my music and access it from my droid. Although a 32gb microsd will be cheap enough soon to not mess with the cloud.

2/10/2011 9:04:42 PM

^ set up a shoutcast server. listen to it through a web browser

2/10/2011 9:36:06 PM

^been there done that, really easy to do and if you setup the admin permissions, you should be able to control your list remotely.

2/11/2011 1:37:33 PM

I signed up for Swiss Disk after I posted that. Using the free account for my work laptop (only backing up important files and email) and bought the $5 / month unlimited plan for my home desktop. Currently 57% into my initial backup of somewhere around 150GB.

2/11/2011 9:31:24 PM

any updates additional suggestions? i've currently got about 1.5tb i'd like to backup and will likely have over 2tb after this summer

cheaper is better, but only if it comes with decent service...bonus points if i can connect to the storage with something like expandrive

3/30/2011 1:15:01 PM

Had an external harddrive die that was storing all my photos on. Replacement should arrive Friday. I'll get to try out crashplan restore process first hand.

I had a local backup of most everything too, but, will be nice to try out the process now, as opposed to if I lost everything due to fire/storm.

3/30/2011 7:24:53 PM