Comments on: Remembering to Backup: Step-by-Step

By: James Krunk

James Krunk — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:42:11 +0000

@Mike Panic – I’m not against aNAS device. When I was saying it was cheaper, I was talking about for offsite storage. I have a NAS that takes the backups from all my computers, but I need that data offsite in case something happens at work (lightning, theft, etc). I used to this with tape backups and a security box at my bank, but for $9.99 / month I backup all my data online now.

I set up my account on http://www.myotherdrive.com to encrypt the data so noone but me can see the data.

I also notice on my nightly backups that http://www.myotherdrive.com only sends changed files to their servers. For me that is maybe 20-40 files a night so the 10Mbs (my connection is only 756K upload) vs. 100Mbs becomes less of an issue.

By: Mike Panic

Mike Panic — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:21:02 +0000

@James Krunk – Not to try a whole debate and take this off topic, but how is that site cheaper? A 2TB drive, like shown in this article’s example costs maybe $200, and it can be accessed from several computers on your home network. The site you mention charges $9.95 / month for 500gb of bandwidth, or 25% of what a hard drive in your house would cost. Higher plans they don’t even have prices listed. That’s $120 / year.

Also, I’m on a FiOS connection, my download speed is a steady 10 Mbs, that’s fast for internet but pails in comparison to the 100 Mbs speed my local area network works at. I couldn’t imagine backing up large files and accessing them on a regular basis over the internet. I also don’t feel comfy with my personal information on someone elses servers, so I would be much happier just using an NAS device.

By: James Krunk

James Krunk — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:11:43 +0000

A much cheaper method is to use an online backup company such as http://www.myotherdrive.com who offers a 2.99 and a 4.99 solution. I store all my files there no that they have encryption and an unattended backup solution.

By: Mike Panic

Mike Panic — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:02:57 +0000

@Brad – I agree 100%, but a Drobo is a serious investment that most casual home computer users wouldn’t think of making, and while I am a Mac user, something like 90% of all home based computers are still running Windows, even higher in the business world.

By: Brad

Brad — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:05:26 +0000

So far I’ve found a backup solution that works great for me:

Time Machine + Drobo.

Time Machine backs up my stuff every hour, and Drobo keeps multiple redundant copies of that backup data.

I even had a chance to try it out a few weeks ago. The motor in my hard drive died, and it refused to spin up. Once I got it replaced and booted it up again Time Machine asked me if I wanted to restore from a previous backup, and within an hour I was exactly where I left off. (minus cache and temp files)

It doesn’t offer much protection in case of a fire or something, with no off-site storage, but I’m looking into that.

By: Vin | NaturalBias.com

Vin | NaturalBias.com — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:03:07 +0000

I think an external hard drive is a great way to back up data, and they’re relatively cheap now.

Because of viruses, spyware, bad software and clutter, computers get slow. Every so often, I reinstall everything from scratch. By using an external hard drive as my regular hard drive, I don’t have to worry about losing data when I do this.

I also use a second external hard drive to periodically back up the first and store it in a safe.