I've seen a few services offering total computer backup for pretty cheap.

Examples:
https://www.backblaze.com/
http://www4.crashplan.com/consumer/index.html

Anyone have are experience or thoughts on these services?

Considering the the multi-machine backup service offered by crashplan in only $5 per month, I'm considering trying it to back up my home data and my work data where all my PhD research is. They might be in for a suprise considering that my work workstation mounts to our lab's data storage servers and their client would face the task of backing up 50 TB worth of satellite data.

9/14/2009 11:24:26 PM

Are you drunk or something? Proof-read before you post.

9/15/2009 12:06:49 AM

mozy

9/15/2009 2:39:32 AM

i use WinSCP - sFTP shit over.

create a scheduled task:

"C:\Program Files\WinSCP\WinSCP.exe" /console /script=C:\ftptest.txt

FTPTEST.txt:
option batch on
option confirm off
open mysite:coolpassword@coolwebsteftp.com
cd mywebsite.com
cd dailybackup
put C:\backup.zip
close
exit

9/15/2009 8:57:00 AM

mozy.

9/15/2009 8:57:26 AM

I've also heard a lot of good about mozy.

I almost went with mozy but I'd like to be able to access my online files from any computer and that's not so easy/cheap with mozy... any other options that allow access from any computer?

9/15/2009 9:00:02 AM

mydropbox

9/15/2009 9:14:18 AM

http://www.intronis.com/

9/15/2009 10:34:11 AM

^^you mean getdropbox.com? they're pretty expensive
^do they have pricing on their site? I haven't seen it yet...

[Edited on September 15, 2009 at 10:41 AM. Reason : .]

9/15/2009 10:38:04 AM

Mozy doesn't appear to support Linux systems. I'd like at least Windows and Linux support. Also, several of you recommended Mozy but no one said why. Why choose Mozy over other services?

9/15/2009 11:51:05 AM

Mozy is a nightmare to restore your files. NIGHTMARE.

9/15/2009 12:22:57 PM

forgot about that

but very true and good point..

you have to go through a shitty web interface to tell it which files you want..then they have to "process" which takes an hour or two or more. after that you get a link to download the files but all of them are cut back to like 16 character file names or something ridiculous like that. so, yea, it's DEF not a good way to restore lets say an entire hard drive worth of your images from the last 10 years or something like that.

9/15/2009 12:27:34 PM

^^^^yeah, i suppose. and i've just now noticed that you said 50TB of data. so nevermind my suggestion.

[Edited on September 15, 2009 at 12:29 PM. Reason : .]

9/15/2009 12:29:12 PM

For 50TB, the only cost effective solution you are going to have is an unmetered co-located dedicated server. You should be able to build and deliver one to a decent data center for ~10k, and run you a few hundred a month to maintain.

9/15/2009 1:23:50 PM

In all honesty, I don't need to back up the satellite data. I can always get it back from NASA/NOAA/NSIDC/etc... if I really need to and it's on RAID 5 arrays. My main goal is backing up my work and home windows machines as they currently have the least measures taken to safeguard data. The linux compatibility comes into play for when I want to expand my current backup measures for my office linux workstation(s).

Backblaze seems to be run by technically oriented people dedicated to making a good product. I like how they talk about their own technical challenges such has fiding an economical way to obtain a lot of storage. http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/
Crashplan seems to put marketing before technical information which is something I never like.

9/15/2009 3:17:10 PM

Quote :

"seems to put marketing before technical information which is something I never like"

Watch as I put your jewelry into this hat *handwave* Look over here at this hand! *distraction* Don't worry we can pull it right back out again *poof* Look over here at this hand again! *wave* Hey there's a bright light, and I'm wearing fancy clothes *distraction* Hmm, I'm sure it's just a temporary fluke, I'm confident it will appear in my hat again shortly! *handwave*

9/15/2009 3:39:19 PM

mozy

[Edited on September 16, 2009 at 12:58 AM. Reason : although i'm considering switching to backblaze, they're pretty awesome]

9/16/2009 12:54:12 AM

bump

2/9/2010 12:47:13 PM

mozy has been working well for me...


\/ mozy is set it and forget it. I paid like $103 for 2 years for unlimited. carbonite must have reduced their prices... I thought there used to be like $60/year/5GB or something ridiculous like that.

of course, these prices are the home editions.. I don't know about business editions.

[Edited on February 9, 2010 at 1:11 PM. Reason : .]

2/9/2010 1:02:01 PM

i've never used any of these services before...we're looking for some simple and cost-effective online nightly backup for 13 locations...i actually won't have anything to do with the software once it's installed, so it needs to be something that can be set up and left alone forever (unless we need to pull files from the backup, of course)

carbonite offers unlimited space for $55/year...anyone used them? for the most part, this service is for piece of mind and would only really be used in the case of a computer getting fried and needing data ASAP

actually, it looks like carbonite pro (http://www.carbonitepro.com/ProPricing.aspx) allows you unlimited computers and is based on data size...they also charge you monthly for whichever tier you fall into, so you only pay for the tier...i can't imagine our locations needing more than 10gb, so that's only $900/year total instead of $1400/year with mozy ($9/month/location)

of course, carbonite's home program is cheaper at $715/year for all 13 locations

[Edited on February 9, 2010 at 1:18 PM. Reason : .]

2/9/2010 1:05:29 PM

it appears that carbonite may be a little cheaper and less hassle for a businesss..


http://mozy.com/pro/pricing/
http://www.carbonitepro.com/ProPricing.aspx

2/9/2010 1:14:25 PM

50 TB uploaded at 100Mbit with 0 overhead/loss = 4,000,000 seconds = 46.3 days

Yeah, good luck with any network backup solution.

2/9/2010 3:32:31 PM

Just buy 2 SATA drives and a BlacX dock. Get SyncBack and copy all your important data to one of the drives. Then take it to work and lock it in a desk drawer. If you are paranoid then run TrueCrypt on it too. Then keep the other drive in the dock to do nightly backups. Every week or so swap the drives. If you have more than one machine, share the data and access it from one machine where you do the backups from.

That's what I do and it works great. Hooked it up over eSATA so it responds just like an internal drive would performance-wise. I even bought a little anti-static hard case for my drive for $10 on Amazon that let's me haul it around without worrying if I'm screwing up the logic board.

2/9/2010 3:45:21 PM

^ if you're responding to me, you missed: "it needs to be something that can be set up and left alone forever" and while you can do that even by just hooking up an external, the point is to have something off-site

2/9/2010 3:50:04 PM

^I got you, bro.

2/9/2010 4:03:40 PM

If you have access to web hosting or a FTP download a copy of GFI Backup Home Edition (it's completely free for non business use) and configure it to send your backups to the web.

GFI Backup Home: http://www.gfi.com/backup-hm

2/9/2010 8:05:53 PM

Ah I didn't see your post, I was referring to the OP with my comment.

If you are looking for multi-site consolidated backups for a business let me know. That's what I do for a living

[Edited on February 10, 2010 at 9:33 AM. Reason : .]

2/10/2010 9:30:40 AM

so I just found out that Mozy won't backup ISO files.... how can I get my ISO files to be backed up???

3/8/2010 4:45:36 PM

You could burn them to DVD.

o< I MEAN

3/8/2010 4:55:10 PM

^^ zip/rar/7z them?

or save them as an .img?

[Edited on March 8, 2010 at 4:56 PM. Reason : .]

3/8/2010 4:56:15 PM

put all your files into a directory, split them into like 1000 rars, label them as porn, and put it on newsgroups.

Eventually it will be distrbuted across multiple p2p networks for maximum redundancy.

3/8/2010 5:04:51 PM

Any recent opinions on Carbonite for home backups?

I'm usually too lazy to backup my desktop and two laptops more than once a year plus I'm afraid of fire or water damage taking out everything.

I saw earlier in the thread that Mozy had some crappy limitations (.iso, file name limitations). Does Carbonite have any of these hidden nuances?

I could live with periodically copying the laptop files over to the desktop so only signing up with one computer doesn't bother me and $50/yr is no problem.

4/24/2010 11:21:27 PM

Quote :

"backing up 50 TB worth of satellite data"

Honestly, I laffed. HARD. Lets say you're bumming a 2MB/sec upload speed... you're still looking at just over a week to back that much data up.

I'm also curious how Neon would build one for 10K? That's a lot of hardware to get 50TB.

Roughly, you'd need racks with Fibre interconnects to make one giant logical drive. Figuring 12 drives per 3U or 4U rack, that would be 11+hotspare. At that rate you'll bank 14TB per rack usable in RAID5, so 4 units..... that's assuming 1.5TB drives. Tough to pull that under 10K.

Anyway, if you REALLY need that data backed up here's what I would do. Get a group of 30-40 friends with solid internet connections. Put it into a giant bittorrent and tell them all to pull it down. Give 'em $20 to rent that space on their machines until you're done. The remaining (fluctuating) data I'd just get a $500 iSCSI unit and mirror or 0+1 if you've got the cash for a 4 banger.

[Edited on April 25, 2010 at 2:56 . Reason : rawr spelling]

4/25/2010 2:55:13 AM

Quote :

"I'm also curious how Neon would build one for 10K? That's a lot of hardware to get 50TB. "

i was wondering the same thing

Quote :

"Roughly, you'd need racks with Fibre interconnects to make one giant logical drive. Figuring 12 drives per 3U or 4U rack, that would be 11+hotspare. At that rate you'll bank 14TB per rack usable in RAID5, so 4 units..... that's assuming 1.5TB drives. Tough to pull that under 10K."

for 50TB, the best solution would be a couple of SAS JBOD enclosures or a FC/iSCSI SAN

4/25/2010 11:41:24 AM

how is windows live for free not better than these services?

4/25/2010 12:57:29 PM

bump

9/20/2010 11:19:37 AM

hey i'm looking for a good online backup option. Mainly just for photos and documents. I have been looking at Mozy or Carbonite but then I realized I could just use my dreamhost account.

Instead of doing it manually are there any good software packages that do it over ftp/sftp? Someone mentioned GFI backup. I wouldn't mind something that automatically syncs on a schedule or when idle.

9/20/2010 11:26:30 AM

I really think S3 is the most affordable and secure place to keep files. I'd be surprised if web hosting services allow you to "store" data on your webhosting account. Most companies frown upon this and if your account gets audited, they'll ask you to delete any personal data that's not being linked to by a webpage.

9/20/2010 11:36:45 AM

I believe dreamhost allows 50GBs of personal storage for free if you're a user. After that they start charging you like $.10/GB/month which is cheaper than .15/GB/month on Amazon.

I doubt I'll go over 50GB at the moment so I might just do this and use GFI free home edition for the syncing. Anyone have any other suggestions other than GFI?

If you don't have a host I'd go with Mozy or something. You can get a reduced rate for 3 years and if you're storing a lot it's much cheaper than Amazon S3.

9/20/2010 11:49:21 AM

^ in your dreamhost cPanel you can get the code for a virtual disk. Then just use a batch file to copy whatever to that virtual drive. It's basically glorified FTP, but it contains much less hassle.

9/20/2010 12:38:43 PM

Thanks. I'll check that out. I might just get Mozy and not worry about it. It's so cheap.

9/20/2010 1:56:24 PM

I just want something that is gonna mirror my My Documents folder automatically.


I don't care about anything else. A fresh install every now and then is good for the soul. Just want docs, pics, and music.

9/20/2010 2:04:29 PM

I'd look into Mozy then. It's automatic and free up to 2 gigs (more with referrals). It's something like $55 a year for unlimited or if you prepay for 2-3 years you get 1-3 months free. I might end up doing that after I try out the free trial.

9/20/2010 2:13:20 PM

^If you wanna go that dreamhost route and can mount it as a drive like mentioned above, just set up a robocopy script with the /mir option and then make that a scheduled task. That will mirror your source to your destination meaning it will only copy what has changed. This doesn't really take care of versioned backups like (I think) Mozy does though.

9/20/2010 3:04:59 PM

I might try that out too. How do I set up the virtual drive? I see the option for the backup but not virtual drive.

9/20/2010 3:07:33 PM

I have a customer with 3 computers to back up, not that much data, and I think I'm going Backblaze. Only $5 per computer unlimited storage. I'd use Mozy, but I don't wanna worry about how much data is on each computer. Unlimited is King.

11/18/2013 9:28:36 PM

amazon glacier > *
$0.01/GB/month 99.999999999% durability

11/23/2013 10:31:53 AM