24 replies to this topic

[+Blank]

I've been messing with online data back up solutions for the past week.

I was going to go ahead and buy carbonite, but meh, im not too sure if i like it all that much. It works most like Live Mesh, and i love live mesh, but microsoft doesnt allow you to buy more sapce for it.

I'm not too sure if i trust carbonite, and i hear bad things about weird limits once you use a certain amount of space (even though they say unlimited). Also they dont watch folders, or upload special files.
I want to back up my 80gb photo collection online, which includes random videos here and there, and tons of ini files for picasa and other photo tools.
by default carbonite wont back these up. I'd have to go through hundreds and hudreds of my folders to manually select the files, and videos, which is kind of annoying.

Good thing about carbonite is that it encrypts all your date, and only you have the key.

Also the online file browser isnt all that great.

I tried Crashplan, but it doesnt even seem to have an online file viewer, or mount system so you can mouth the spoace a drive, and such, so that ones out.

mozy is too much money.

I then thought about using amazon's new cloud drive. extra space isnt too expensive. but they dont encrypt any data. and im gonna be backing up some personal file, i could encrypt them before i uplaod, but that'd ruin the entire online viewer thing. I know Amazon does encrypt files from hackers, but theere is one one key and they seem to keep it, so its not original.

I'm not going to be uploading anything illegal, but i know with services like dropbox, they say that if court or police ask them for your files, they will give them to them, and they use amazon's storage.


So i wasnt happy when any of these choices. then i found Google docs, which lets you upload any file nd back up your data to them.

You can buy 200gb of space for like $50 a year, which is pretty good.

I also found a solution to online backup, and mirroring folders, and files with it, which is http://www.gladinet.com/
With that program you can mount the google docs space as a drive on windows, and also do mirror automatic backups, and folder watching, and what not, which is perfect. It also works with amazon's cloud drive, but the space there is more expensive.

i know you can buy space for googles picasa web albums, which would be perfect for me since i use picasa desktop client as my photo manager, BUT, web albums will not accept png files, which most of my pictures are in. It'll convert them to jpeg, and loose quality, which i don't want. I want my original pictures, unaltered at original quality/resolution, etc.

So i plan on buying 200gb of google storage, and using google docs to as my online backup, with the gladinet desktop client (which is only $49) to do all of my file mirroring, and automatic folder watching and back up.

So i think i have my entire solution. Has anyone attempted this, and ifs o what ere your results?

[Shasoosh]

Hey there, kinda old thread but you wrote a lot of good info here so i preferred replying here instead of opening a new one about my dilemma.
i'm facing the same issues those last few days, searched neowin and found this thread. Are you happy with google docs as an online storage?
I have a dropbox account (10 gigs) but it's hardly enough for my pictures collection. (that's what i'm basically want to backup online)
Yesterday I've tried Box.net which gives you now (Or gave you in the past in some kind of promotion?) 50 gigs with 100MB file size limit which is more than enough for my pic collection but uploading files there is a slow torture with the web interface using bulk (uploading a few folders at once. They don't have a simple Dropbox integration with windows. They offer something called SimpleShare that zips the folders you drag to it (not what i'm looking for) and another solution i've found is adding to "My Computer" a network drive with box.net username&password that works but is slow as hell and also doesn't accepts any files that are written in other language besides English.
I'd like to here how those online backups working for you. I don't care if it's a free or not service, as long as i'll sleep better at night knowing my pictures are safe.

[DougW]

I've used IDrive for years. Works really well.
http://www.idrive.com/

[tiddlie]

Megaupload.....



.....oh wait....

I use Dropbox to backup my data to, but I think it needs stressing that you should always keep an offline backup also! Don't want to find the FBI have shut down your chosen service overnight and you have no access to your files...not that that would EVER happen....

[Mazhar]

I don't know any online backup service that matches the service of Dropbox.

Edited by Anaron, 20 March 2012 - 14:08.
Removed referral link.

[Shasoosh]

^ I don't think its allowed to post affiliate links in the forum.

Another big disadvantage to Box.Net - You can't download folders, only single files..

[InsaneNutter]

Shasoosh, on 20 March 2012 - 09:44, said:

Hey there, kinda old thread but you wrote a lot of good info here so i preferred replying here instead of opening a new one about my dilemma.
i'm facing the same issues those last few days, searched neowin and found this thread. Are you happy with google docs as an online storage?
I have a dropbox account (10 gigs) but it's hardly enough for my pictures collection. (that's what i'm basically want to backup online)
Yesterday I've tried Box.net which gives you now (Or gave you in the past in some kind of promotion?) 50 gigs with 100MB file size limit which is more than enough for my pic collection but uploading files there is a slow torture with the web interface using bulk (uploading a few folders at once. They don't have a simple Dropbox integration with windows. They offer something called SimpleShare that zips the folders you drag to it (not what i'm looking for) and another solution i've found is adding to "My Computer" a network drive with box.net username&password that works but is slow as hell and also doesn't accepts any files that are written in other language besides English.
I'd like to here how those online backups working for you. I don't care if it's a free or not service, as long as i'll sleep better at night knowing my pictures are safe.

Why not just go for the Dropbox 50gb for $99 a year? https://www.dropbox.com/pricing you are happy with the service and i have never found anything better in my opinion.

[Shasoosh]

Maybe i got it all wrong but to my understanding there's a big disadvantage to DropBox, besides that adding more space costs 9.99 a month, if i want to backup my pics I'll need to have 2 copies of my pics. on my computer. One in a regular folder and one in the dropbox folder. Of course you can have only one copy in the dropbox folder BUT if those will get accidentally deleted there's a chance you'll lose those pics in your internal drive and on your dropbox folder because dropbox will think you want those deleted.
My goal is to have one copy on my personal computer
One in a remote harddisk (In my case my streamer)
And one online

[Biohead]

What about making your own cloud backup?

Something like a pogoplug. No yearly subscriptions, as much space as you connect to the device, accessible anywhere.

[Mazhar]

Shasoosh, on 20 March 2012 - 12:07, said:

Maybe i got it all wrong but to my understanding there's a big disadvantage to DropBox, besides that adding more space costs 9.99 a month, if i want to backup my pics I'll need to have 2 copies of my pics. on my computer. One in a regular folder and one in the dropbox folder. Of course you can have only one copy in the dropbox folder BUT if those will get accidentally deleted there's a chance you'll lose those pics in your internal drive and on your dropbox folder because dropbox will think you want those deleted.
My goal is to have one copy on my personal computer
One in a remote harddisk (In my case my streamer)
And one online

That is where Dropbox works! When your internal files gets deleted, they are not deleted from Dropbox, you can view your files under "Show deleted files".

[Shasoosh]

I knew that but isn't a lot of trouble to get them all back?
if lets say i deleted multiple folders containing multiple files. Is it just a select all -> undelete click?

Also, can i setup Dropbox to sync my Dropbox folder AND my pictures folders without moving my pictures folder inside my dropbox folder?

[Mazhar]

Shasoosh, on 20 March 2012 - 12:53, said:

I knew that but isn't a lot of trouble to get them all back?
if lets say i deleted multiple folders containing multiple files. Is it just a select all -> undelete click?

Just click on a folder then right click > Restore, and your folder will be restored with all files under it. You can also select multiple deleted folders and restore them at once. It is very easy. Try it out.

Shasoosh, on 20 March 2012 - 12:53, said:

Also, can i setup Dropbox to sync my Dropbox folder AND my pictures folders without moving my pictures folder inside my dropbox folder?

Currently Dropbox does not allow that functionality but there is a workaround for this here. You can also search Google for more answers.

[Shasoosh]

Nice.
Although Dropbox gives you 50 gigs for $100 while google give you 400 gigs for the same price i will definitely consider it.

[Mazhar]

Shasoosh, on 20 March 2012 - 13:09, said:

Nice.
Although Dropbox gives you 50 gigs for $100 while google give you 400 gigs for the same price i will definitely consider it.

Still Dropbox is relatively easy to use than Google Docs.

[Shasoosh]

I totally agree. Much more easy than Google Docs. For now it's my number one choice.