Best Online Backup Service

RonnieL

Hi Guys,

If any of you read my other recent thread you'll know why I'm asking this question! To summarise, I came dangerously close to losing all my family photos/home video after a drive failure in my NAS drive. Thankfully, after lots of googling and suggestions from posters on here, I managed to retrieve my stuff.

So, once bitten twice shy, I'm thinking I should do some automated backups of photos in future. At present I have about 50 gig (I know) of stuff. I was thinking I could just store the photos on our laptop, and get some software to do a nightly backup or something. But in a doomsday scenario (fire or flood), both disks could potentially be history. So, I'm thinking maybe backing up online would be a good bet. I've done some googling but I'd be interested in hearing peoples advice on here.

Thanks,

Ronan

biko

50GB online backup? How much are you willing to spend?
I'd say that Google Drive, Skydrive and Dropbox would be the most common. That is, if you're willing to share your photos with the NSA...

RonnieL

biko wrote: »

50GB online backup? How much are you willing to spend?
I'd say that Google Drive, Skydrive and Dropbox would be the most common. That is, if you're willing to share your photos with the NSA...

I somehow hadn't heard of googles one - I generally use google for most things so that might work. Looks like it would be $4.99 a month, which seems grand. I've used dropbox before when I got free storage with a phone I bought, but it looks like that'll be $9.99 a month.

advertsfox

I personally use Google Drive for integration with Gmail, Android etc. I pay $4.99 for 100GB and it's completely worth it as it's cross platform so my pictures are auto uploaded to Google+ with no cost of space (they are reduced to 2048px though) 20,000 songs to Google Music and it's easy to attach / work with Drive files. It's seemless, cheap and you get bonuses over time - I got 30GB as a Paid User Bonus

RonnieL

advertsfox wrote: »

I personally use Google Drive for integration with Gmail, Android etc. I pay $4.99 for 100GB and it's completely worth it as it's cross platform so my pictures are auto uploaded to Google+ with no cost of space (they are reduced to 2048px though) 20,000 songs to Google Music and it's easy to attach / work with Drive files. It's seemless, cheap and you get bonuses over time - I got 30GB as a Paid User Bonus

Just on the picture size thing - does it automatically resize all pictures uploaded to google drive? Not sure I like the sound of that, but having said that I've never printed a photo I took bigger than 5x7.

advertsfox

RonnieL wrote: »

Just on the picture size thing - does it automatically resize all pictures uploaded to google drive? Not sure I like the sound of that, but having said that I've never printed a photo I took bigger than 5x7.

No your images upload to Drive are just like copying to another folder, this is for Google+. Basically it gives you the option to keep the limit at 2048px (about 4.2 megapixels) and upload an unlimited amount or you can choose to upload the full size image which will use your actual Google storage. So if your images are no bigger than 2048px, it will be free - if they're bigger, they'll use your space.



The images then go into a private Auto Backup folder within Google+ and Drive intergration (as in a Pictures folder) is coming soon according to rumours (doesn't make sense not to) Above is obviously a screenshot of Android (which auto uploads your Camera) but the same preferences apply to the Desktop version.

RonnieL

advertsfox wrote: »

Basically it gives you the option to keep the limit at 2048px (about 4.2 megapixels) and upload an unlimited amount or you can choose to upload the full size image which will use your actual Google storage. So if your images are no bigger than 2048px, it will be free - if they're bigger, they'll use your space.



The images then go into a private Auto Backup folder within Google+ and Drive intergration (as in a Pictures folder) is coming soon according to rumours (doesn't make sense not to) Above is obviously a screenshot of Android (which auto uploads your Camera) but the same preferences apply to the Desktop version.

Interesting. Does that mean you could create a free google drive account, and upload as many photos as you want at 2048 at no cost?

At $5 a month I'll probably still go for the full size images, but it would be good to know.

advertsfox

RonnieL wrote: »

Interesting. Does that mean you could create a free google drive account, and upload as many photos as you want at 2048 at no cost?

At $5 a month I'll probably still go for the full size images, but it would be good to know.

Yes of course, every free Gmail account created can:

- Upload / Backup Unlimited Pictures (at 2048px) to Google+
- Upload 20,000 songs of any size or bitrate to Google Music

If you then pay the extra $4.99 to Google+, that 100GB extends your Gmail, Google+ and Drive storage availability. In my screenshot above, you can simply toggle between your 2048px or full size storage in the preferences. Do you have Android devices? Also, here's my storage distribution as seen from Google Drive:



TIP: If you work in an office with a high speed network, use that for uploading your content to Drive - will only take a few hours for ~50GB of files.

rovoagho

[Unfortunately, the below is no longer tinfoil-hattery. It's documented.]

Just bear in mind that with any stateside service, it's almost certain that your files are being parsed by at least one security agency; that's assuming they don't actually have complete copies. Of course for most of us this isn't really a security issue, but it is a privacy issue, and data leakage is always bad since it can lead to further leakage. Since most or all of the fibre transiting the Irish Sea is also tapped by GCHQ, this probably applies to UK-based services too.

If you want proper security, either use a system with client-side keys, like Wuala or SpiderOak; or better yet (since those are closed source apps), get your own hosting space and use something like BackupPC or Bacula. That's entering into the realms of complicated though.

Torqay

By the time you have done your research of all the cloud services offered and discussed here, you could have easily burned your "stuff" on a few DVDs and be done with it. DVDs are likely to survive the flood, so there goes 50% of your doomsday scenarios.

wil

TBH 50Gb of static data while still large for online backup is small for local backup.

Online is handy and the future but it takes time. The main considerations are usually upload speeds and privacy concerns. And if your broadband is down, then so is your access.
With all the various online services (Check this list here) you should be fine for free storage unless they all move to paid service.

And that too is a consideration, google hasn't been slow about discontinuing services of recent, others move to paid for models and then you are tied to yearly subs or lose it.
Then there's the continuous synching with many of them.

For home storage, 50Gb is a large usb stick (~€40), 12 DVDs (,€10) or a fraction of a portable 1Tb drive any of which could be stored (encrypted) safely in a fire safe or in another relatives house or try a private /hybrid cloud backup option.

Plenty of possibilities, just don't rely solely on one, that's a disaster waiting to happen. Also check your backups. Just coz you backed something up, doesn't guarantee you can restore it.

A quick question for those who might know - what are your suggestions/experiences for getting large quantities of data uploaded to cloud. Say 1Tb:eek:

200motels

What about Adrive they give 50GB for free.

http://www.adrive.com/

Or

https://app.box.com/

Media999

Flickr gives a TB free for all photos and Videos. Thats what uses up the most Space.

People usually only have a few GBs after that which can go to Dropbox.

Mr. G

rovoagho wrote: »

[Unfortunately, the below is no longer tinfoil-hattery. It's documented.]

Just bear in mind that with any stateside service, it's almost certain that your files are being parsed by at least one security agency; that's assuming they don't actually have complete copies. Of course for most of us this isn't really a security issue, but it is a privacy issue, and data leakage is always bad since it can lead to further leakage. Since most or all of the fibre transiting the Irish Sea is also tapped by GCHQ, this probably applies to UK-based services too.

If you want proper security, either use a system with client-side keys, like Wuala or SpiderOak; or better yet (since those are closed source apps), get your own hosting space and use something like BackupPC or Bacula. That's entering into the realms of complicated though.

I wouldn't be surprised what the US are capable of. Though, if you want total privacy, I wouldn't upload it anywhere. If it needs to be online with privacy, it should be encrypted.

Amazon AWS do have a data centre in Ireland, so that might be a consideration, and they do have to comply with EU privacy laws.

Slightly OT here, but if you're going to get it in the cloud, do it in Ireland. As a country we're too small to be tapped on and there isn't much legislation covering such. And privacy is respected here. Well, most of the time!

TheBoffin

Mozy is worth a look

RonnieL

Crikey, thanks for all the replies. Plenty to digest.

One thing I hadn't even considered was the big brother aspect. And honestly, I'm not that concerned. I'll be backing up thousands of pictures and videos of me any my family. If some lad in virginia wants to browse through them, then off with him!

Whatever I decide on, it has to be automated. Talk of burning to DVD or USB and placing in a fire proof box is all well and good, but that takes discipline. My broadband speeds are decent, and unlimited, so I'm happy for something to tip away at keeping my stuff up to date. And if my broadband is gone, losing access to backed up photos isn't the end of the world.